Slayers in Space
by Kennie Gajos
Summary: Stuck at the other end of the galaxy with no way to get home, Faith finds friends and enemies alike in her romp across the stars. Meanwhile, on Earth, the SGC and New Watchers Council struggle to find her or even get along... Sequel to Visions of Vampire
1. Fight or Flight

Slayers in Space

Part 2 of the Mind-Melder Series.

By Kennie

Chapter One – Fight or Flight

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stargate SG-1 are both owned by people who are not me. Sadly, I make no money from the creation and distribution of this tale and I own nothing. Literally nothing.

Daniel wandered down the depressingly decorated Ori hallway on his way to meet up with Faith. She'd insisted that they split up to get a better idea of what was going on. They had agreed to meet up two hours later in a storage closet not far from the ring room. Worried about what might happen while they were separated, Daniel had insisted on spending ten minutes of those two hours instructing Faith in how to use the rings.  
A door on his left suddenly attracted his attention. Glancing at his watch he noticed that he had a little time to spare. The door was no different from any other of the doors in the corridor. But...  
Daniel pressed the small pad beside the door firmly and the outer doors opened. They closed behind him as he stepped through and the inner doors in front of him opened. It was someone's personal quarters. A woman's, he realised as he moved about the room and spotted a mirror on a table.  
It was quite a large room, and well appointed, obviously belonging to someone of significance. A large window took up a significant portion of one wall and the eerie light of hyperspace was all that lit the room as Daniel picked up a pillow from the bed.  
He turned it over in his hands for a few minutes and then quickly brought it up to his face and sniffed it. A fragrant and familiar scent curled up from the pillow and he buried his nose further into the pillow, breathing deeper. Vala. This was her room.  
The sound of the outer doors opening brought him back to himself and he quickly placed the pillow neatly back onto the bed, melting back into the deepest shadows of the room and pulling out his gun. Vala was married now. To an Ori believer called Tomin. If it wasn't her he didn't know what he'd do. Judging by the recording he had watched, Vala cared for Tomin. Just how much he didn't know.  
The inner doors opened and Vala trudged through them, slowing as she realised that the room had somehow changed. She turned around and her heart leapt as Daniel stepped out of the shadows, his gun pointed at her heart and a warning finger on his lips.  
"Shh." He warned, taking his finger away but keeping the gun pointed at her. "Long story."  
"Are you alone?" Vala asked quietly.  
"Kind of." Daniel said, flicking his eyes down to her stomach. "What happened to you?"  
Vala frowned, staring at the gun he still pointed at her. "What do you mean?" Daniel stared pointedly at her stomach and Vala suddenly realised what he meant. "Oh! I had a baby." She told him, her mind flashing back to her recent meeting with her daughter.

If you wanted to find out what was going down and remain unnoticed, the kitchen was always the best place to be, Faith mused as she served a long line of Ori soldiers while listening to two men across the room talk about something called an Orici. So far she'd found out that they'd gotten their asses kicked during the fight at the Supergate and that this Orici, whatever the fuck that was, was the holy of holies as far as the Ori were concerned.  
Unobtrusively glancing at her watch, Faith stepped away from the counter, stripping her apron away. Time to go meet Daniel.

"I'll distract her while you sneak up and stun her." Vala told Daniel as they moved through the Ori ship towards the armoury.  
"We need to stop by the storeroom and pick up Faith." Daniel reminded her.  
Vala resisted the urge to roll her eyes. If it hadn't been for Faith's total lack of concern when Vala had possessed Daniel's body she would almost think there was something going on between them Daniel was so insistent on finding her. Sure alone on an Ori ship wasn't a nice place to be but Faith had seemed pretty smart. Maybe not book smart like Daniel or Colonel Carter but certainly street smart like Mitchell or herself.  
"If we get her before we go to the armoury then she can get some weapons too." Daniel continued, turning down a different corridor.  
Unless... Did Daniel like Faith? Narrowing her eyes, Vala watched the tall man carefully as they headed further and further away from the armoury.

Where the fuck was he? Faith ducked into an empty room to avoid a patrol of soldiers headed in her direction and cursed Daniel. For three hours she'd been searching for him, dodging soldiers and Priors as she roamed the ship in search of the archaeologist. On the plus side, she'd identified three possible ways off the ship.  
Her attention caught by the view from the window behind her, Faith crossed the room to stare outside. So that's what that change in the engines had been all about. They'd landed on a planet and judging from the smoke rising from several places were going about subduing the locals.  
Where the fuck was Daniel? They needed to get to get off this ship right now. Ducking back into the hallway, Faith continued the way she had been going, peeking round a corner when she came to an intersection.

"This is Lt. Col. Samantha Carter calling any survivors of the Earth ship Korelev."  
At first Daniel thought he was hearing things but as Sam started to repeat herself he quickly pulled his radio from its hiding place under the panels of his Ori vest.  
"Sam, it's me, Daniel." He whispered into the radio, turning his back on the corridor so his actions wouldn't be as noticeable.  
"Daniel." Sam's relief was evident as her tinny voice echoed around the hallway. "I knew you'd made it. Is Faith with you?"  
Daniel screwed his face up as he glanced up and down the deserted corridor. "Well, she's onboard." He temporised. God only knew where the dark Slayer was. Thanks to Vala, he'd missed their scheduled check-in hours ago. Speaking of Vala... "I'm kind of in the middle of something right now." He told Sam, keeping one ear out for Vala's voice in the room he was guarding.  
"We're in orbit trying to blow up one of the Ori ships..."  
"Yeah, I'm on one of the ships that has landed on the planet." Daniel said quickly before Sam could go into any detail. He really didn't have time for this. "I'm going to have to tell you the rest later. Requesting radio silence." He said pointedly as he switched his radio off and quickly got back into position, a nonchalant look on his face as two Ori men walked past him.

There he was! Very aware of the Caleb-look-a-like walking towards them, Faith approached Daniel as subtly as she could but when the Caleb wannabe turned on Danny, threatening him with the weird staff he carried Faith stopped, melding into the shadows as Daniel put his hands up and was ushered into the room he'd been guarding.

"Kill him."  
"No! Wait..." Vala cried as she moved in front of Daniel to protect him from her husband. "We want to talk to you."  
"Move!" Tomin yelled as the doors behind him opened again and Faith hit him.  
Tomin's eyes crossed and he sank first to his knees and then slowly and face-first, to the floor. Faith pointed a finger at Daniel.  
"You were supposed to meet me three hours ago. Not cool."  
Adria stamped her foot, her eyes changing to twin whirlpools of flame, and Faith found herself thrown back against the far wall and pinned there.  
"Adria, no!" Vala shouted as an electronic hiss filled the room and blue light shot from Daniel's hand into Adria.  
The small child collapsed, unconscious, and Faith fell to the floor with a thump.  
"Nice kid." She commented, shaking her head to clear it as she stood.  
She hadn't got more than two steps towards Daniel and the dark-haired woman she assumed was Vala when a line of fire sprung up behind her and the doors opened to reveal a one-eyed Prior. Daniel reacted instantly, bringing his arm up to fire on the man. He stared in disbelief at the weapon as it refused to fire and the Prior stepped through the flames. Straight away, Daniel grabbed his pistol, aiming at the unconscious Orici.  
"No!" Vala told him as the Prior telekinetically pulled the pistol out of Daniel's hand. The weapon flew across the room, landing safely behind the Prior.  
Daniel started to glow with light and as an electronic hum filled the room, he flung himself at Vala, tightly wrapping his arms around her as they were transported away.  
"Oh fuck." Faith said from her corner and suddenly the Prior's attention was on her.  
Cocking his head slightly to one side, he glided towards her, the gleam in his eyes holding more than mere curiosity. Faith shuddered under his calculating gaze and reacted, her leg lashing out as soon as he came within striking distance and knocking his staff away. The Prior pulled himself upright and held out his hand as the staff came flying back across the room. Faith's eyes widened. Did everyone have freaky powers out here? Recovering quickly, the Slayer lashed out with a tentative punch that was blocked by the staff.  
"Fear not the Ori," The Prior intoned as he blocked another blow. "For blessed are those who walk in unison."  
"I fear no-one." Faith grunted as she struggled to land a hit on the Prior. "Especially not crazy priests."  
"Make yourself one with the path my child, and the journey shall lead you to eternity."  
Faith was breathing heavily as she circled the Prior, looking for any kind of opening. "Ew. Why does it sound dirty when you tell me to make myself one?"  
"Foolish child!" The Prior said, pointing his staff at Faith.  
The brunette Slayer was thrown back through the flames and into the door. Falling to the ground, she looked up as the Prior stepped through the fire and advanced on her.  
"The power and greatness of the Ori cannot be denied." He crooned, a sickly smile on his face as he held out his hand to her. "Join with us and your eyes shall be opened to Enlightenment."  
Faith stayed on the ground, biding her time as the Prior moved closer, closer. Exploding into violent action, Faith grabbed the base of the Prior's staff and shoved it upwards into the base of his chin. Staggering back, blood pouring from the puncture wounds on his chin, the Prior somehow managed to retain his grip on his staff but it didn't matter as Faith brought up Daniel's gun and fired.  
The bullet clipped him in the shoulder, spinning him round so that he fell face-first onto the carpet. Faith lay there, breathing harshly, a tight grip on the gun as she considered what to do next.  
Daniel had clearly just been beamed off board, leaving her stuck alone on board an evil ship filled with enemy soldiers and religious whack jobs who could toss people around with their minds. Why the fuck hadn't they beamed her off too?  
The flames still hadn't died down and the Prior moved. Only slightly, one hand groping towards his staff, but it was enough to convince Faith that now was the perfect time to get off the ship.

Malina urged the group of refugees to move faster. They had to get to the gate before the troops or die trying to fight their way off this forsaken planet with nothing more than a pair of zat'nik'tels. Ruefully she cursed the impulse that had compelled her to visit the Chulak market early this morning.  
Noticing the clearing of ground cover that indicated they were nearing the Chap'pai, Malina shouted to her Father's servant, Gunt, to keep the refugees moving and sheared off into the undergrowth. Moving rapidly over the ground, she took a circuitous route to come up behind the Stargate. She groaned as she saw the eight men guarding it and set off back the way she had come to warn the group.  
Reaching them just before they came into view of the Stargate and its guards, she frantically motioned for them to stop, the finger on her lips indicating that they should be silent while doing so. Quickly explaining the situation to Gunt, Malina broke off as she noticed a woman in a bloodstained pale blue dress running up the track behind them.  
Stepping into her path, Malina forced the woman to stop.  
"There are eight enemy soldiers ahead." She warned the dark-eyed woman.  
"Well there's about twenty of them five minutes behind me." The woman panted.  
The refugees moaned at the fresh proof of their imminent obliteration and Malina shushed them. She needed to come up with a plan.  
The stranger moved past her and further up the path. Malina followed her to a hiding place where they could spy on the Stargate.  
"Do we have any guns?" The woman whispered.  
Malina shook her head. "Two zat'nik'tels." She whispered back, showing the weapons to her.  
"Okay, I'll take the four on the left, you take the two on the right and we'll get some people who can shoot to pick off the two in the middle." The stranger flashed a grin at her and oddly, Malina found herself comforted.  
Two men were quickly chosen by the group of refugees as the best shooters and the quartet attacked. Dodging the deadly light from their weapons, Malina made short work of the two men she had been assigned to take down. Looking around, she saw that the strange woman was surrounded by dead or unconscious bodies. How had she incapacitated so many before Malina herself had finished?  
Malina wasn't boasting when she claimed to be the best hunter on her home planet. Almost two years ago, Malina had suddenly been gifted with strange powers. Becoming stronger and faster than any man hadn't increased her eligibility but it had meant that with her help, the heavy chores on her Father's farm were completed quickly, increasing its productivity and enabling her Father to buy more land.  
She cried out as she saw the woman get hit by the last of the enemy soldier's weapons fire and sink to her knees. The shooters fired on him, quickly killing him as Malina rushed to the woman's side. To her surprise, the woman was still conscious, her breath whistling in and out of clenched teeth and her hands curled tightly into fists as she struggled to remain upright.  
"Are you injured?" Malina asked, checking her for any visible injuries.  
"Just get us the fuck out of here." The woman hissed.  
Rushing to the controller, Malina began to push the buttons that would take her home. Halfway through the sequence, weapons fire behind her coincided with the screams of the refugees.  
Pushing herself to her feet, the stranger turned to the shooters, holding her hand out.  
"Gun." She demanded and easily snatched the weapon out of the air as it was thrown to her. Ducking behind cover as the refugees ran into the clearing, the woman squeezed off a shot at the lone soldier who followed them.  
It struck him in the chest and he fell to the ground as the Stargate activated and more soldiers appeared.  
"Everyone move!" The woman shouted, firing the zat'nik'tel and hitting an enemy with every shot. Refugees streamed through the Stargate and Malina paused next to the stranger.  
"Go!" The powerful woman shouted, moving backwards towards the gate as she continued to fire at the soldiers.  
Taking her advice, Malina joined the last of the refugees as they rushed up the steps and through the Chap'pai. Looking over her shoulder as she stepped through, the last thing Malina saw was the woman getting hit again.

The peaceful fields stretching far into the horizon on the other side of the wormhole, while not what she most wanted to see right now, ranked a definite second. As the Stargate shut off with an electronic fizz behind her, Faith slumped to the ground, the pain from the two shots they'd gotten in coursing through her body. Her last thought before she lost consciousness was that she recognised the girl who had fought with her.

General Landry groaned as he read the latest report from the Odyssey. While the news that Doctor Jackson and Vala Mal Doran had been successfully rescued from an Ori ship was encouraging, the fact that Faith had been left behind on that same ship was a disaster. The Watchers Council were not going to be happy.  
Calling for aspirin, Landry closeted himself in his office as he tried to put a positive spin on the situation. Preferably one that wouldn't result in his balls being ripped out through his throat by an angry Buffy Summers.

Consciousness came quickly, hurried along by the distant sound of arguing.  
"All I am saying is that by bringing her here you may have brought these attackers down upon _us_." A male voice spoke angrily in another room.  
Faith looked around her. A low-beamed ceiling, the rough white walls and the patchwork quilt on the bed she was tucked in all added to the Farmhouse chic vibe the place had going for it.  
"I fought with her Father." The girl from the planet replied. "They'll be after me as much as her. Would you rather I left too?"  
It was obvious that the girl was expecting him to say no but the silence that followed her question was telling. Faith jumped as the door to the room was opened and the girl entered.  
"Oh!" She said as she realised that Faith was awake. "How are you feeling?"  
Faith evaluated her condition. "Good to go." She decided, pushing the covers back.  
"Please," The girl laid her hand on Faith's shoulder and the last of the Chosen Slayers felt herself being pushed down with a stronger than usual strength. "Stay until you are rested." The girl urged.  
Pushing back against the pressure of the girl's hand, Faith watched knowingly as the girl's eyes widened once she realised that Faith was at least as powerful as she was.  
"The dreams started at the same time you got strong." Faith told her.  
Trembling, the girl perched on the edge of the bed, one hand fluttering up to her mouth.  
"I never told anyone... How did you know about the dreams?" The girl asked.  
Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Faith looked deeply into the girl's eyes. "A long time ago, a group of men decided that they weren't strong enough to fight their demons. So they chained a girl to the desert floor and forced the essence of a demon into her. She was the First Slayer. One girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight evil. The power passed down through the generations, one girl at a time, moving on to another when one died. Until one died and came back. Then there were two. Now, thanks to that girl, there are hundreds of Vampire Slayers all over the world. And apparently, the Galaxy too. You're one of us."  
"What's a vampire?" The girl asked.  
Faith silently applauded the girl's guts. Finds out she's a Slayer and the first thing she wanted to know was what to slay.  
"Dead man walking basically." Faith explained. "No pulse, doesn't breathe, likes to drink the blood of humans, you can kill 'em by staking 'em through the heart with wood, choppin' their heads off or by shovin' 'em out into the sun. Ringing any bells?" She asked as the girl's expression stayed blank.  
She shook her head. "My dreams are of men as pale as ghosts, with scarred faces and glowing staffs."  
"Everybody hates a zealot." Faith quietly reminded herself. "What's your name?" She asked.  
"Malina Greenwheat." The girl introduced herself.  
Faith swung her legs out of the bed and, unconcerned with the fact that she was completely naked, stood and began rummaging through drawers looking for her clothes. "I'm Faith. What happened to my stuff?"  
"Your dress is being washed, but I don't believe we'll get the bloodstains out." Malina told her with a blush.  
"I don't give a fuck about the dress. I had combats and stuff under it." Faith could feel her legs start to wobble beneath her and she sat abruptly back down on the bed as beads of sweat broke out on her brow. Obviously she wasn't about to bounce back from whatever the hell it was she'd been shot with as quickly as she thought, Slayer healing or no Slayer healing.  
"Your underclothes are also being washed." Malina told her as she tucked Faith's legs under the quilt and pulled it up over her shoulders before crossing to a simply carved wooden box. Carrying it over to the bed, Malina opened it to show Faith the oddments she'd been carrying in her garments.  
Faith's eyes lit up at the sight of the objects and she quickly scooped them out of the box, laying them within easy reach on Malina's nightstand. Malina eyed the objects suspiciously; the only thing she recognised was an ornate dagger, still stained with blood.  
Standing, Malina looked down at the pale woman in her bed. Reaching a decision, she reached out and patted Faith's shoulder. "You rest." She told her. "I'll bring you some food."  
"Can't stay for long Mallie." Faith muttered into a pillow. "Gotta get back to Earth."  
By the time Malina left the room the dark-haired woman was fast asleep.

Buffy tapped her obscenely expensive and oh-so-pretty shoe on the floor as she glared at the people in front of her.  
"Let me see if I've got this right," she said, pointing at Colonel Mitchell. "You invited Faith to a fight _in space_ and you," she accused Daniel. "You left her stranded on an enemy ship on the other side of the universe." Turning to the General at the head of the table, Buffy narrowed her eyes. "And you let her travel there in the first place _without any way to get home_!" Buffy refused to feel guilty as everyone winced when she shouted the last part.  
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded his head.  
"What were you thinking?" Buffy exploded. "Check that, you _weren't_ thinking. I don't care what it takes, you get her back!"  
"We're doing everything we can." General Landry assured her.  
"But?" Buffy asked, a murderous glint in her eye.  
General Landry swallowed and Colonel Mitchell came to his rescue.  
"But we just got our butts kicked by a superior force hell-bent on the enslavement of all life in the galaxy." He explained. "We really should be doing something about that. It doesn't mean that we won't look for Faith, but we can only devote a certain amount of resources to the search." The words felt dirty as they came out of his mouth. Unable to fight the feeling that he was somehow betraying Faith by speaking he shut up.  
Buffy leaned forward, her tone icy as she spoke. "Fine. You don't have the _resources_. I'll send you some of my people. All you'll have to do is let them use the gate and _they'll_ find her."


	2. Betrothed

The next time Faith woke up it was night and there was a warm body curled up next to her. Although it was a pleasant surprise, Faith didn't swing that way. As she felt much better and there was a pile of clothes on a nearby chair, instead she quietly slipped out of bed and into the dress she had stolen on the Ori ship. Confident enough to explore her surroundings now that she was clothed, even if it was in an ugly-ass dress, Faith picked up her cigarettes and silently left the room.  
Her bare feet making no noise on the worn wooden boards, Faith looked around her new surroundings. The moonlight streaming through the windows gave more than enough light to see the whole room. A massive table dominated the room, chairs clustered around it. A couple of more comfortable chairs were grouped in a corner, a shelf containing two books above them. Bunches of herbs hung drying from the rafters of the room, filling the air with a fragrant smell and there was a stack of actual cauldrons next to a large brick fireplace. Ripping open her packet of cigarettes, Faith picked up a glowing ember with a pair of metal tongs hanging from the mantel and lit a cigarette.  
The first puff went straight to her nicotine-deprived brain and left her feeling dangerously light-headed. Quickly placing the ember back in the fire, Faith stared at the two other doors out of the room. Picking the one next to a window, Faith found herself standing on a wooden porch, a cool breeze fluttering the skirt of her dress around her ankles and dragging the fabric across the smooth line of her thighs.  
Another pull on the cigarette she still held saw her sitting hastily on the steps leading down to a dirt yard before she lost her balance. Brilliant white light flooded the area in front of her and she could see the large barn opposite the house as clearly as if it were day. A large dog lay between the two buildings and as Faith watched, it lifted its head to sniff the air before dragging itself to its feet and slowly making its way towards her.  
Scratching the dog behind the ears as she struggled to finish her cigarette, Faith's thoughts turned to the man who had given the pack to her. Had he made it through the battle okay? From the whispers she'd heard on base, he seemed like the survivor type. He had too much vitality, was too forceful to easily die. Besides, he'd been heading to a space ship off the Korolev before it had blown. Somehow she knew that he was okay and safe back on Earth. Still fighting. It was as though some small piece of her could feel him alive and well. She shuddered with the memory of his bright blue eyes staring at her, as piercing as the blinding moonlight on this alien planet.  
Her cigarette was finished. Faith flicked it to the ground, far away from the dog sleeping on her feet. Leaning her head against the rough wood of the balustrade, she looked up into the night sky. Few stars hung in unfamiliar positions, all but drowned out by the dazzling light of three full moons.  
Stunned by the alien sight, Faith was unprepared for the wave of homesickness that passed over her. She wasn't a fool, she knew that her chances of getting home on her own were slim. Even if she did manage to dial the right number for Earth, she remembered the iris thing from her time at the SGC. She'd have to figure out a way past that. Maybe it'd be quicker to get there by spaceship. But she'd need someone who knew where Earth was. And a spaceship.  
Oh screw it! She clearly wasn't getting back anytime soon. That left her with only one option as she saw it. Stay out here and fight. There were Slayers out here, Mallie was proof of that, and if her dreams were anything to go by then the Powers That Blew Ass wanted them to fight the Ori. She was fucked if she had a clue where to start though.

Malina woke early the next morning, as was her custom. To her surprise, Faith was already awake and out of bed. Shivering as she threw the bedclothes off, Malina dressed quickly, made her bed and went to see about breakfast. Grabbing the pail from its peg, she stepped outside to fetch the water and stopped. Faith lounged against the railing, a small white stick protruding from her mouth and clouds of smoke streaming from her nose. Malina gasped and dropped the bucket.  
Alerted by the clatter Faith whirled around and noticed Malina. Taking the stick from her mouth she smiled as it smoked in her hand.  
"Hey." She greeted. Malina gaped at her and Faith followed her gaze to the cigarette in her hand. "Cigarette." She said in explanation, showing Malina the packet of them that she carried. "We have them on my world. Don't suppose you know where I can get more?" Malina shook her head wordlessly and Faith shrugged. "That sucks."  
Bending to pick the pail up, Malina hugged it to her chest as she watched Faith suck air through the stick, flick ash from the end and then exhale a cloud of smoke.  
"Are you really a Tau'ri?" The young girl asked, biting her lip.  
"No, Gemini, you?" The lightheaded Faith quipped before she noticed the earnest look on Malina's face. "What's a Tau'ri?" She asked.  
"You said you had to get back to Earth. That's what the Tau'ri call their home planet." Malina explained.  
Faith shrugged and flicked the cigarette to the ground. "I'm from Earth if that's what you mean. Didn't know that made me a Tau'ri."  
She'd have figured on something like Earthian. Earthan? Terran maybe. Tau'ri sounded weird. Foreign. With a start, Faith realised that it was probably alien. Great, did that mean that there were different languages out here? So far everyone around her had spoken English but if they started speaking alien to her she was so beyond screwed.  
Clutching the bucket, Malina started down the porch steps towards the pump, carefully avoiding the still smoking cigarette. Faith fell into step beside her, her bare feet making no noise on the dirt of the yard and Kado dogging her heels.  
"Now that you are recovered, when will you be returning to Earth?" Malina asked carefully.  
Faith grimaced. "That might be a problem." She admitted. "I don't really know how to."

Cam watched grimly from the Control Room as the MALP rolled up the ramp and through the Stargate. Switching his attention to the monitor beside him, a muscle ticked in his cheek as he waited for the camera feed to come online.  
With a burst of static it did and Cam had time to clearly see the platoon of Ori soldiers stationed in the Stargate clearing before they began firing. The picture shook violently as the MALP was rocked by weapons fire and then it cut completely.  
Suddenly sickened, Cam turned to Walter.  
"Shut it off." He told him, rubbing a hand across his whiskered chin.  
He needed a shave and some of Daniel's coffee. Mostly he needed to find Faith. He knew that she wasn't dead, refused to believe it, but she could be in the hands of the Ori even now. She could be anywhere, suffering through anything and he couldn't even find out if she was still on Chulak!

Faith tucked into the massive breakfast Malina had placed in front of her as the girl knocked on the door Faith had rejected the night before and stepped back to the blazing fire. The door jerked open and a bleary-eyed man with dishevelled grey hair stood unsteadily in the doorway. Swaying for a moment, he eyed Faith suspiciously before sitting heavily at the table and drinking out of the tankard Malina placed in front of him.  
"Hello." Faith said politely. "I'm Faith."  
Malina's father ignored her, shovelling food into his mouth with no regard for table manners. Swallowing more from his cup, a thin rivulet of liquid ran down his chin and dripped onto his shirt. Wiping his hand across his mouth, he belched and turned to Malina.  
"Cook something special tonight." He instructed her. "Your betrothed is coming to dinner."  
His lunch neatly wrapped in a parcel in her hands, Malina stared aghast at her Father.  
"Betrothed?" The newly discovered Slayer asked, her voice thin and tight.  
"Fixed it all up last night." Malina's father told her, taking his lunch from her and jamming a floppy hat on his head. For the first time since he appeared he looked at Faith and she shrank back from the venom in his eyes. "Make sure your _friend_ is gone by then." He growled as he strode out of the door.  
Shocked, Malina looked helplessly at Faith.  
"Betrothed." She whispered, sinking to a chair.

General Landry looked around the conference table at his premier team and sighed. "So people," he said. "Where are we at?"  
"Well, we've managed to identify a potential weakness in the Ori shields." Colonel Carter said before Mitchell had a chance to do more than take a breath to reply. "It is possible to use the ring transports while they're active."  
"It was not possible to do so when using explosive devices." Teal'c reminded her.  
"Yeah." Carter admitted. "But organic matter makes it through. They must have some sort of security protocols in place."  
"So we send in strike teams?" Hank extrapolated. "Hmm, I don't think so." He turned to Colonel Mitchell. "How are things on Chulak?" He asked.  
The Colonel grimaced wryly. "Overrun with Ori." He admitted. "There's probably at least one ship still in orbit."  
"I wish to travel to Dakara in order to consult with the Jaffa High Council." Teal'c rumbled from further down the table. Landry nodded his consent and a corner of Teal'c's mouth lifted infinitesimally as he bowed his head in thanks.  
"I'd like to go to PX1-767." Daniel said absently, his eyes glued on the open pages of the book in front of him. He glanced up and realised that everyone was looking at him. "I, uh, I'd like to take another look at Merlin's library. There may be some clues as to the location of the sangra'al hidden in there."  
"The anti-Ori weapon?" General Landry asked. "Sounds like a good idea to me."  
"Hold on." Mitchell said. "What about Faith? Shouldn't we be trying to find her?"  
"Her last known location is crawling with enemy soldiers." General Landry grimaced. "And the President feels that if Miss Summers' organisation wishes to take responsibility for finding her then we should let them. I've been ordered to turn the investigation over to them as soon as they get here."  
"When will that be?" Mitchell asked  
"We haven't yet received word from Miss Summers." General Landry told him. "Teal'c, you are cleared to travel to Dakara. The rest of you will 'gate to PX1-767, see if you can't find a superweapon. Dismissed." He stood and SG-1 stood with him.  
The General strode purposely to his office and settled himself in his chair just as Colonel Mitchell filled the open doorway.  
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" He requested.  
"Granted." General Landry allowed, knowing what was coming next. He wasn't disappointed.  
"Sir, we need to find Faith." Mitchell said, stepping eagerly into the room.  
"Agreed." General Landry said, throwing Mitchell off-balance early. "Do you have a plan?" He asked.  
Mitchell frowned. "No." He admitted. "But we don't leave our people behind, sir."  
"Believe me Colonel, I want to find her as much as you do." General Landry said, folding his hands on the desk in front of him. "But the fact is her last known position is overrun with enemy soldiers and we have no way of knowing if she made it off Chulak. Or is even still alive for that matter."  
"She's alive." Cam insisted softly.  
"You have no way of knowing that for certain." Landry said, his voice raising slightly.  
"I know." Cam's voice stayed at the same quiet level, the certainty in his tone unsettling.  
General Landry leaned back in his chair, his face stern as he looked his second-in-command in the eye. "My orders stand." He told him. "We'll keep an eye on Chulak until you return. Dismissed." He told the Colonel for the second time.  
Mitchell stood there for a moment, clearly struggling to come to terms with his orders. "Yes sir." He finally said, turning on his heel and leaving.  
Alone in the room, General Landry sighed and stared blankly at his paperwork. God, he hoped they found her soon.

"You're dropping your left shoulder." Faith instructed Malina as they sparred in the yard.  
Together, both girls demonstrated moves that any normal human would be hard put to even attempt. Moving back and forth across the yard, their feet kicked up puffs of dust that slowly settled back to the ground once they had passed. From the shadows of the veranda Kado watched the two women spar, his head tucked between his paws and his tail wagging every time they came near.  
Panting hard as she traded blows with Faith, Malina was knocked back a step as the older woman planted a firm kick in Malina's stomach. Evading the fist that quickly following the kick, Malina kicked out herself, only to be hampered by her long skirts.  
Taking advantage of Malina's temporary loss of balance, Faith knocked her feet out from underneath her and the blonde girl landed flat on her back in the dust of the yard. Grinning, Faith held out her hand and Malina stared at the strangely clad woman for a moment before she accepted it. Perhaps these combats of Faith's brought her an additional advantage, freeing her legs to fight as well as her fists. Landing easily back on her feet, Malina glanced up at the sky and froze  
"I must start dinner." The young girl said, her face clouding over as she headed for the house.  
"You're not seriously going through with this betrothed shit, are you?" Faith asked, following her inside. "You haven't even met the guy."  
"My father wouldn't pick an unsuitable husband for me." Malina said stubbornly, lifting a large cauldron down from its peg. "Besides, it's the tradition on my world. My parents had an arranged marriage and they were very happy. It is only since my mother's passing that..." She paused, sighing as she stared at the bunches of herbs hanging from the ceiling. "Could you pass me that book?" She asked, pointing to the shelf.  
Faith picked up both books. One was fairly battered, with loose leaves and a scuffed cover while the other looked new and unmarked. She held both out to Malina, not knowing which one she wanted.  
"That one." Malina said, taking the older from her. "It was my mother's recipe book." She said, stroking the cover fondly before opening it and flicking through the pages.  
Faith turned the other small leather-bound book over in her hands. Something about it screamed evil to her senses, called that deeper darker place inside of her to rise up. She flipped it open and read the words printed on the fly leaf. Book of Origin. Book of Origin? Daniel had a copy of it in his office. It was the Ori Bible or something. Faith glanced at Malina. What was the Book of Origin doing here?  
"Mallie?" She asked, holding the book up.  
Snapping some stalks from a bunch of herbs, Mallie looked at the book.  
"Father brought it home from Market some weeks ago." She said. "He sometimes reads the stories to me at night."  
"Do you know what it is?" Faith asked.  
"A book of legends." Malina said absently, pouring water into the cauldron.  
Faith shook her head. "This is the Prior Bible." She told her.  
Malina frowned as she swung the cauldron over the roaring fire. "What's a bible?"

Vala stood in Daniel's office doorway, leaning against the doorjamb as she watched him pack for his upcoming mission. He was frowning as he stared at the two books in his hands. As she observed him, he seemed to come to a final decision, putting one of the books in his pack and leaving the other one on his crowded desk. His fingers moving quickly over the fastenings of his pack with the ease of experience, he swung the heavy bag over his shoulder and turned to the door, jumping as he noticed Vala for the first time.  
"Vala." He said quietly.  
"Daniel." Vala responded just as quietly.  
"I didn't see you there." Daniel said, brushing past her and out into the deserted hallway. "How long..."  
"An hour or so." Vala blithely said as she kept pace with him.  
Startled, Daniel looked at his watch. If that were the case then he was running late... no, Vala was just messing with him again.  
"It felt like an hour." Vala defended herself as he glared at her. "Listen Daniel, I wanted to talk to you about going to this Camelot planet with you. My experiences could be very useful..."  
"No." Daniel said firmly, stepping in the waiting elevator and pressing the button for level 28.  
"I could help you go through the library. Colonel Mitchell said it'd take you years..."  
"No."  
"What if Sam needs some help with the ancient computer device thingy?" Vala suggested.  
"I'm sure she'll be fine." Daniel told her as the elevator doors opened. "You heard about the treasure didn't you?" He asked, looking suspiciously at the space pirate.  
Vala's eyes widened dramatically. "Treasure?" She asked innocently as they entered the Gateroom.  
"You're late." Mitchell said gruffly, checking his P-90.  
Daniel looked at his watch again. "Two minutes." He defended himself as the Stargate began the dialling sequence.  
"Daniel..." Vala whined from beside him.  
"No." Daniel told her automatically as Walter announced a lock and the Gate activated.  
Together, Mitchell, Sam and Daniel started up the ramp, leaving a forlorn Vala standing by herself.  
"I don't handle boredom well." She tried a last-ditch attempt to convince Daniel to let her go before he left.  
"I remember." His faintly ironic words drifted back to her before he stepped through the event horizon and the Stargate shut off with an electronic hiss.  
Vala scowled as she stared at the empty Stargate. Now what was she supposed to do? As if in answer to her question, the dialling procedure started back up again and Vala sensed a presence next to her. Turning, she saw an impassive Teal'c waiting for the Gate to activate. His concealing robes swathed his imposing figure and made him seem even larger than life as he leaned on his staff weapon.  
"How 'bout it Muscles?" Vala asked saucily. "Fancy a travelling companion?"  
Teal'c stared at her for a long moment before turning his attention back to the spinning Stargate.  
"No." He said definitely.  
Vala pouted.

"So these are the legends of the people I've been dreaming about?" Malina asked with a frown on her face as she stared at the book in front of her.  
"Yes." Faith confirmed what she'd already told the girl.  
"They seemed so innocent." Malina whispered.  
"Daniel says that's what makes them so effective." Faith said, struggling to remember the archaeologist's exact words.  
Malina pushed the book away from her and stood up, dusting her hands off. The delicious smell of dinner curled around them both as they stared at each other.  
"I have to get ready." Malina said, breaking eye contact with Faith. "Father will be home any minute."  
"Oh come on Mallie." Faith exploded, crossing the room and taking the other girl by the shoulders before she could leave the room. "You can't still be going through with this."  
But it was one change to Malina's world too many and she shrugged Faith's hands off her shoulders.  
"You can't stay here." She said in a distant voice. "You can sleep in the barn tonight but you'll have to leave before Father gets up tomorrow."  
"Mallie!"  
Malina looked at Faith and the older girl was shocked at the implacable resolve in her eyes. "Just go Faith." Malina advised her in a cold quiet voice.  
Wordlessly Faith left. How the fuck was she supposed to save the galaxy when she couldn't even save one Slayer from herself? Kado followed her as she ran straight past the barn and into the deepening night, trying to leave her sense of failure far behind her.

Buffy felt weary beyond belief as her taxi pulled up outside the council building in Cleveland. Paying the driver, she exited and stared up at the large brick building for a moment before squaring her shoulders with a sigh and entering.  
Slayers lounging on the sofas in the foyer sprang to attention as soon as they saw her, forcing another sigh from the oldest of them. Ignoring the girls eagerly waiting for her attention, Buffy walked straight past them and into the office off to one side of the room.  
"Buffy!" Robin exclaimed, leaping up from his chair behind the large walnut desk covered in papers. He frowned as he realised that she was alone. "Where's Faith?" he asked.  
"Where're Xander and Willow?" Buffy asked as she lowered herself into a comfortable leather chair in front of the desk. "I don't wanna say this more than once."  
Still frowning, Robin opened his office door and shouted to one of the Slayers outside to fetch Buffy's friends. Closing the door, he sat back down behind his desk and leaned back in his chair, eyeing Buffy with concern.  
"When was the last time you slept?" He asked.  
Buffy shrugged. "Just before you called." She said.  
"That was two days ago!" Robin exclaimed. "Buffy, you need to-"  
"I'll sleep on the flight back." Buffy interrupted him to say. "It leaves in three hours." She said, checking her watch.  
Behind her the office door opened and Willow and Xander entered the room.  
"Caridad said you wanted to see us." Willow said before she caught sight of her friend. "Buffy!" She squealed. "When did you arrive?" The red-haired witch looked around the room and frowned. "Where's Faith?" She asked.

Faith traced a design on Cam's bare chest with one fingertip. He flinched as her finger moved slowly down his side.  
"Tickles." He complained.  
Sitting upright and sliding one hand round the nape of her neck, he kissed her deeply, their tongues colliding as they deepened the kiss. Faith leant against him, her thighs on either side of his as she straddled his lap and surrendered herself to him. Cam took the lead, easing out of the embrace with tiny butterfly kisses across her full lips. Copying her earlier movements he stroked one finger down her neck and over her collarbone. Slowly, his mouth followed his finger's lead even as his finger dipped further down, over the swell of her breast, the tight bud of her nipple.  
Faith's head fell back and her breath came in ragged pants as his mouth reached her collarbone and lingered there while his finger curved around to stroke down her side. She giggled as it tickled and Cam lifted his head, his bright blue eyes meeting her brown ones, a twinkle in his eyes that promised more to come as his finger slowly stroked the curve of her hip.  
"Arf?" He said and Faith frowned, the sexy mood broken.  
"Woof. Woof woof!" Cam continued to bark.  
Staring at him in horror, Faith felt the dream start to slip away from her and frantically tried to clutch Cam tighter to her, only to feel him slip from her grasp, as intangible as smoke.  
Slowly she opened her eyes and stared at the wooden rafters above her as the events of the past few days slowly began to catch up with her. She was lying in the straw in Malina's hayloft on an alien planet millions of miles from Earth with no way back and Cam... Fuck!  
Kado's frenetic barking finally made an impact on her consciousness and Faith heaved herself to her feet and wandered over to the open window of the hayloft, wondering why the fuck Kado was causing such an uproar. Tucking herself into the side of the window, aware that she wasn't supposed to be there, Faith had an excellent view of the moonlit farmyard. When the three moons of Malina's planet were full as they were now they easily radiated enough light to illuminate even the deepest shadows and Faith could clearly see Kado as he barked madly at two figures coming up the lane.  
Faith squinted at the two men, struggling to make out details in the monochromatic moonlight. The taller of the two men used a staff to support his weight although it was the shorter who needed it most as he staggered along the farm track, reeling in the moonlight.  
Kado's frantic barking intensified as the two men drew nearer and Faith recognised the drunken man as Malina's father. The one with the staff must be Malina's betrothed then. But why was Kado barking at his master? The answer became obvious as Malina's betrothed stepped into the Farmyard and Faith got a clear look at his scarred face. Drawing back deeper into the shadows, Faith gasped as the Prior raised his staff and levelled it at the frenzied dog. A blue light briefly illuminated the Farmyard and Kado cried, slumping to the ground.  
The large dog continued to whine deep in his throat as Malina's father and betrothed climbed the wooden steps of the house. Malina's father opened the door and stumbled inside, leaving the Prior alone on the porch. Faith stiffened, forcing her muscles to lock into place and keep from betraying her as the Prior turned and stared straight at her hiding place for a long moment before turning and following Malina's father into the house.  
Faith let the breath she had been holding escape in an explosive rush as she stared at the farmhouse, expecting to hear a scream or something, _anything_ that meant that she could attack. But the still of the night was broken only by Kado's weakening whimpers rising from the ground below her.


	3. Praemas of Vere Una

**A/N:**

Calliope is a fickle Mistress... I'll _try_ to get the next chapter out quicker... Enjoy!!

**Introducing... Praemas of Vere Una**

Malina heard her father's footsteps outside, scraping unsteadily on the worn wood of the steps. A second set of footsteps, firm and heavy, stalked her father's. Hurriedly she pulled the door of the oven open, feeling a gust of baking air wash over her. Wonderful. A bright red face would clash spectacularly with the pink of her best gown. Pulling the bread out of the oven, she wondered whom her father had chosen for her to marry. As long as it wasn't Gunt she would be happy Malina decided, quickly transferring the fresh bread onto a platter as the door opened.

Her father was the first through the door, rebounding off the frame and staggering over to slump in a chair at the table. Not Gunt, not Gunt, not Gunt, Malina silently chanted as she waited for her betrothed, a welcoming smile on her lips. Long seconds passed and her smile felt forced and frozen before a tall shadowy figure filled the doorway. Malina's breath caught in her throat and her stomach cramped painfully. This was it. The man she was going to marry.

As her betrothed stepped over the threshold, bending his head to fit under the lintel, his face was in shadow and so Malina's gaze was drawn instead to the twisted staff he held in his right hand. The fragrant platter of freshly baked bread fell from Malina's nerveless fingers.

She'd really rather marry Gunt.

**l**

Slowly and silently, she crept down the hayloft ladder, desperately trying to remember which of the rungs had creaked earlier and placing her weight on the edges of those that didn't in case she got it wrong. Carefully, she dropped to the floor, looking around to check that no-one had seen her. Only Mallie and her pa lived on the farm at night but it paid to be extra careful. The last thing she wanted to do was alert the Prior to her presence.

Noiselessly, she made her way to the barn entrance and stood in the shadows for a moment while she decided what to do next. House or Kado? She could always make a run for the Stargate but given that she didn't know where the fuck it was and she'd be leaving Mallie behind, she decided that was a bad plan. A piercing whine from the dark shape huddled in front of the barn decided the matter and she dropped to her knees by Kado's head.

She was no expert, but running her hands over his still form, she felt no broken bones and judged it safe to move the large dog into the relative haven of the barn. He whimpered as she lifted him and she gently hushed him, moving him deep into the shadows of the barn before turning to look at the dark shape of the house. What the fuck was going on in there?

**l**

Malina didn't know how she'd kept her wits about her as her father had introduced her Betrothed to her. A Prior! He'd Betrothed her to a Prior. Malina knew that her father had taken her mother's death hard, turning to strong drink to soothe the empty place in his soul, but she hadn't realised that he'd also taken leave of his senses! What had he been thinking to Betroth her to a Prior? Suddenly the Book of Origin that Faith had discovered earlier that day made much more sense to Malina. This Prior, this Praemas, must have given it to her father. He in turn had given his only child to him. Why?

Showing no outward sign of the torment in her heart, Malina turned to the two men waiting at the table with a large smile pasted on her face.

"Dinner will be ready soon." She assured them as she ladled large helpings of the stew she had made into the rough wooden bowls they used to eat.

How was she going to escape? Malina's eyes flitted from the heavy iron ladle, to the sharp knife she had used to chop the meat and settled on a small package carefully tucked away from any food. The poison they used on the rats. Of course!

Careful to keep her actions shielded from the men by her body, Malina carefully eased the poison from its place and folded back the paper edges. Her hands shook as she carefully poured a generous amount into her hand and folded the packet back up. Dividing the poison into two portions she carefully sprinkled it into the bowls she had intended for her Father and Betrothed. Picking up a horn spoon, she stirred the stew until the poison had thoroughly dissolved. As she turned back to the two men, she held up the bowls with what felt like her first genuine smile of the evening.

"Dinner's ready!"

**l**

A floorboard underfoot began to creak and she froze, her dark figure clearly delineated in the sharp moonlight. Holding her breath she waited, all of her weight thrown onto her other foot, her ears straining to distinguish any unusual sounds. But what was unusual on a foreign planet? Gradually she began to convince herself that no-one could have heard her and moved on, her Doc Marten-clad foot brushing silently over the tell-tale board and onto the next.

She never was any good at sneaking around, she thought as she edged her way along the veranda. Probably because she was more of a hit 'em all 'til they're dead kinda girl. Crouching underneath the wide window she risked a peek into the well-lit interior.

The Prior was sat at the table with his back to her, Malina's father sprawled in a chair beside him, guzzling from his tankard. Malina was just sitting down as she looked in, her soft gaze focussed entirely on the steaming bowl in front of her. Pulling back out of sight, she frowned as she stared unseeingly over the farmyard. Did Malina actually _want_ to marry a Prior?

"Stop." The Prior's harsh command easily reached her ears, in spite of the log wall between them and despite herself she froze.

Malina jumped slightly and beside her on her right, her drunken father fumbled with his spoon, eventually dropping it onto the floor.

"Oops." He exclaimed, and missed the table edge by a hairsbreadth as he ducked abruptly underneath it in search of the missing utensil.

Malina's vivid blue eyes met Praemas' pale gaze across the table as the Prior explained his outburst.

"It is customary," he said slowly, "Where I come from, to invoke the blessings of the Ori before every meal." The sigils engraved on Praemas' jaw shifted as he coughed slightly. "Would you have any objections...?" He asked, his voice trailing off suggestively.

Malina's father popped his head back up from beneath the table, his gaze anxiously fixed on Malina. Trapped by convention, Malina could only force herself to smile at her Betrothed and say,

"Then by all means..."

Praemas looked up and raised his hands to shoulder level. "Mighty and all-seeing are the Ori," He intoned, his gaze fixed piously on the beamed ceiling. "I, your faithful servant, humbly implore you who see all to bless this lowly meal." Malina's stomach clenched as Praemas' staff began to glow in the corner.

Malina's father slowly regained his seat, his gaze now firmly fixed on Praemas' face as the two men's bowls began to glow with the same eldritch light as the Prior's staff. Malina carefully schooled her her round face to remain expressionless as Praemas levelled his pale stare on her.

"Hallowed are the Ori." He intoned, and his voice seemed to come from very far away and yet be all around her at the same time.

"Hallowed are the Ori." Her father echoed.

There was an awkward pause as Malina said nothing, only stared calmly at the two men, her blue eyes betraying nothing of her inner turmoil. Picking up her horn spoon she smiled sweetly at the two men.

"Shall we begin?" She softly asked them.

**l**

"So I told them I'd send some of _us_ to find her." Buffy concluded.

Her friends stared at her in horror. The moment stretched on and on and for the first time since she'd flung the words at General Landry, Buffy began to have doubts.

"Why?" Robin finally asked with a frown. "From what you've told me about this... SGC... this is what they do, isn't it?"

Buffy shrugged. "They were being all que sera sera about losing Faith and it popped out." She explained.

"You lost your temper, didn't you?" Xander asked shrewdly.

Buffy shifted awkwardly in her seat. "Maybe." She admitted.

Robin sighed, picking up his pen. "Who were you thinking of sending?"

Buffy bit her lip uncertainly, not wanting to admit that she hadn't thought that far ahead yet.

"I don't think the Air Force is gonna be too happy if we send them a bunch of underage girls." Xander pointed out.

"We need to send Watchers." Willow said decisively.

Buffy frowned, her forehead scrunching up attractively. "We don't have enough Watchers to go round as it is."

"How many people do we need to send?" Robin asked, his pen poised over the paper he was using to take notes, trying to think about the problem rationally despite his fears for the safety of his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. Whatever the hell Faith was now.

**l**

Malina's father belched as he stood, a long deep belch that seemed to come from the very guts of the man. He staggered a little as he stretched and yawned exaggeratedly.

"Goodnight Malina." He told his daughter, ruffling her hair as he spoke to her. "Don't forget to lock up after your Betrothed has gone." With a broad wink, he left the room.

Malina stared after him in disgust. Was he really so blind that he couldn't see how unhappy she was with the match he had made for her? Could a man who was willing to force her into marriage with a Prior, truly love her? Lost in her own thoughts, she barely noticed how the long silence stretched on and on. Praemas did however, and disapproved.

Bad enough that he was forced to marry, something which went against all the tenets of Priorhood and his own personal wishes without it being to a barely formed girl with no more idea of subtlety than conversation. As if to prove his point, she stirred and turned limpid blue eyes upon him.

"Where do you come from?" She asked impudently.

Breathing out heavily through the broad nostrils of his aquiline nose, Praemas considered giving the girl a taste of her own medicine and not replying. However, his innate sense of courtesy impelled him to at least give her the name of his village.

"Do your parents still live there?" Was the next question upon the prying child's lips.

Praemas couldn't help the annoyed cluck that fell from his lips but mindful of the orders he had been given when he left Celestis, he answered her in a reasonable tone.

"It has been many years since I returned to Vere Una, and I have not seen my father in that time."

She frowned, asking after his mother and his annoyance grew at the thought of her.

"She died when I was a child." He said roughly, hearing ancient grief in the roughness of his voice and hating himself for it.

Her eyes softened and her hand moved forward slightly, almost as though she meant to touch him. He pulled his own hand back sharply, wary of her womanly wiles, and with good reason too he thought as she softly commiserated with him for his loss.

"It was no bad thing!" He exploded forcefully, finding his feet and towering over his Betrothed. "She was a blasphemer, spreading her foul lies about the true nature of the Gods. When she was discovered, she was given over to the holy fires of damnation where she burns for all eternity."

The lack of fear in his affianced wife's eyes reminded him of where he was and just what he was dealing with. Falling back a pace or two, he drew himself up to his full height and apologised for his outburst with all the charm that he was capable of. He forced his eyes to gleam warmly at the girl as he smiled and made ready to leave. Finally, pausing on the threshold as she held the door open for him, he tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"Your father has agreed that we shall be married in two days time." He told her gently. "That should give you more than enough time to pack your belongings." She stared up at him, her eyes wide at the thought of leaving her insignificant backwater of a home world.

"We're leaving Terluna?" She asked, her voice a breathy sigh.

He chuckled at her naiveté. It was reassuring to realise that, underneath her womanish exterior, she was still just an innocent child at heart. Perhaps, playing husband to a Slayer would not be the onerous task he had been instructed it would be after all.

"Did you really think to spend your whole life here?" He asked, stroking down one soft cheek with the tip of his finger.

She lowered her eyes, and a red flush rose in the hollow of her throat. Unbidden and unexpected, he felt the urge to possess her rise up in him until his heart pounded fiercely with desire. Allowing his hand to drop, he cocked his head slightly as he studied her.

"You may kiss me." He said gently.

That made her look at him, as her eyes flew to his and the red blush crept up her throat to her fair cheeks. Anticipation thrummed in his stomach as she slowly raised herself up onto her tiptoes and stepped closer. He closed his eyes and licked his lips, waiting.

Shock held him immobile as he felt her lips, instead of lingering on his mouth, briefly peck at his cheek, and he opened his eyes in time for her to close the door in his face, missing his prominent nose by a hairsbreadth. Astounded by what he considered to be the uncharacteristic behaviour displayed by his Betrothed, he stared dumbly at the door for moment before a strange presentiment prickled the hair at his nape and sent him whirling round in a flurry of robes. He planted his staff firmly on the ground as he peered at the hulking shape of a barn, ominously dark in the bright moonlight.

Focussing his will, he gestured with his staff and the interior of the barn flooded with the same light that issued from the large gem sent in his badge of office. No suspicious persons intent on harming him lingered there, only the mutt that had challenged his presence earlier in the evening lay sprawled on floor of the building.

Relieved, he swung his staff away and the light ceased also, plunging the barn back into darkness. But still the hair on his arms stood upwards and he was struck by an inexplicable sense that he was missing something. Shaking his head, he shook off the feeling as well and clumped heavily down the steps of the house.

Behind him, a dark figure crouched beneath the window, hardly daring to breathe in case he heard her. _That_ had been close!

**l**

Teal'c walked slowly through the makeshift tents of the refugee settlement. To the impartial observer, he might have seemed lost in thought, oblivious to his surroundings. In reality however, he was keenly aware of every Jaffa around him, registering the insignia they all bore on their brows, searching for the familiar sign of Apophis.

The tents thinned out as Teal'c reached the edge of the encampment without ever seeing a match for the tattoo that he himself bore. Somewhere close by a baby wailed and was not pacified. Staring out into the dark night, Teal'c permitted a frustrated sigh to make its way past his firm lips.

Pivoting on his heel to leave, he came to an abrupt halt in order to prevent himself from colliding with an old woman who had somehow positioned herself behind him without his realising. Rocking back, Teal'c stared down at the woman from his not inconsiderable height.

"Tek ma te, Honoured Mother." He said finally, giving the woman the respect her age entitled her to.

She smiled up at him, bending her head. "Tek ma te, Teal'c." She said, brushing her hair from her forehead and revealing the serpentine sign of Apophis. "Who do you seek among us?" She asked.

"A fearless warrior." Teal'c told her.

"Jaffa?"

"Tau'ri." Teal'c corrected. "A woman called Faith."

The old woman cackled, her mouth a gaping toothless hole. "A woman warrior?" She asked. "A strange thing indeed. But these are strange times, are they not Teal'c? What does your woman look like?"

"She is not _my_ woman." Teal'c said stiffly.

"No, Ishta of the Hak'tyl is your woman warrior, is she not?" The old woman said knowingly. "But what does Faith look like?"

Slowly, Teal'c reached inside his robes and pulled out a rectangle of card. Rubbing his thumb along the smooth face of the photograph, he hesitated for a moment before holding it out to the woman. She snatched it from him, backing up a few steps into the light and pouring over the grainy security picture as she muttered to herself. Finally she nodded, looking up at Teal'c.

"A fearsome warrior indeed." She told him. "Over half those of Chulak living here owe our lives to her."

"You have seen her?" Teal'c asked, his rough voice barely betraying his excitement. "Is she here?"

The woman shook her head. "I saw her shot with an Ori weapon." She told him. "It did not hurt her, not then, but after she helped us all to safety she collapsed. The other girl told us she would care for her and so we travelled on. To here." The woman looked around her surroundings with disgust. "I have a sister on Mubastas. Tomorrow I think, I will go to her."

"What planet did you leave her on?" Teal'c asked in a deep rumble. "And in whose care?"

**l**

Faith was slumped on the dirt floor of the barn, her head leant back against the third rug of the hayloft ladder and soft snores escaping her mouth in breathy sighs. Kado's head rested in her lap and as his mistress approached, it stayed there, although his eyes opened a crack and his tail flopped carelessly in the dirt.

Crouching beside Faith, Malina absently stroked Kado's soft head as she paced her other hand on Faith's shoulder to shake her awake. That light touch was all that was needed to catapult the ex-con to her feet. Rearing back into a defensive stance, Faith stumbled over the ladder behind her as she blinked the sleep from her eyes.

Kado's limp form lolled in the dust at her feet and Malina realised for the first time that there was something seriously wrong with her dog. Managing to find his front legs tucked underneath himself, Kado lurched upwards only to discover that his rear legs were AWOL. Slowly, he turned his large head towards his hips and sniffed noisily.

Frowning even as Faith relaxed, Malina stayed kneeling on the ground, stretching a hand out to run it quickly over Kado's spine. "Kado?" She whispered urgently and a long whine pierced the night air in reply. "What happened?" She asked numbly as a long pale tongue crept out to lick her hand.

"Your Beloved." Faith answered her rhetorical question as she sat down next to Kado. The dark-haired Slayer yawned as she knuckled her eyes.

Malina shuddered at the mentioned of Praemas, rocking back on her heels she stared at the other woman. "What the fuck do I do?" She asked Faith simply.

She stared back at her blankly, wondering how the fuck she was supposed to know. This was why B was the Queen of the Slayers and she had as little to do with the Newbies as possible... what the fuck were the PTB doing putting a screw-up like her in charge? Stymied, she stared at the agonised girl, her mind flailing for a solution.

"What do you want to do?" She asked finally, hating herself for not having a better answer for the girl.

**l**

Bored by the deserted base, Vala wondered into the Control Room. Two technicians in white coats were hunched over one of the large servers. In front of the observation window, Walter sat, playing Patience on his workstation. Suddenly, about twelve lights on the control panel in front of him lit up red and Walter's hand slammed down on the handpad beside him.

"Off-world activation!" He cried into the microphone in front of him.

As the iris glided shut over the surface of the Stargate Walter shut down his game, glancing at his watch with a frown.

"SG-1 is early?"

The General's voice floated down from the Briefing Room staircase and Vala wondered if he realised how surprised he sounded. Curious, she stepped behind the staircase as a wormhole formed behind the protective barrier of the finest interstellar metals and an eerie blue light began to flicker on the walls behind the covered Stargate.

"Receiving radio transmission." Walter informed the General.

General Landry strode forward. "Let's hear it." He ordered.

Walter punched a few buttons and a familiar, if even more surprising voice flooded the room.

"'Gate Command, this is Teal'c, please respond."

"Teal'c!" The General's surprise was evident in his voice. "We didn't expect to hear from you so soon. How're things on Dakara?"

"Much as to be expected." Teal'c's deep rumble filled the Control Room. "Many of those displaced by the Ori army are making their way here. A refugee camp has sprung out outside the city walls."

"Faith?" General Landry asked, his face lit with hope.

"Is not here."

Vala noticed that everyone in the Control Room seemed to slouch a little as they listened to Teal'c speak. Stung, she wondered if she'd been as missed when she'd been transported to another galaxy to be impregnated by higher beings intent on becoming universally worshipped. She was so wrapped up in her own internal musings that Vala almost missed Teal'c's next words.

"But I have news of her, General Landry."

Suddenly, the room seemed to get a lot brighter. Despite being buried under a mountain.

**l**

The half-light of dawn was turning everything a strange shade of purple when two figures appeared at the end of a long cart track. Each carrying a large bundle with ease, they moved quickly but quietly down the path. A squat cottage came into view as they turned a corner, its whitewashed walls looming palely out of the lightening night. They stopped for a moment, leaning against a low stonewall as they caught their breath.

"How much further?" The tallest asked softly.

The younger one shrugged in reply and adjusted her grip on the burden she carried. "Another four miles?" She whispered back.

The girls jumped as a light suddenly came on in the cottage and the door opened. Freezing, they both sighed as a small white dog shot out of the door before it closed. Their relief was short-lived however. As soon as the little dog caught sight of them, it began to yap frantically, racing up and down the length of the wall, searching for a way out to attack them.

With a quick glance at one another, they melted into the shadows on the other side of the road, hurrying past the cottage and further down the track. Behind them, the door opened again and a scolding voice called the dog back inside.

**l**

Sally was just reaching for the planes door when the sound of running feet made her look up. Two beautiful young women were running towards her, closely followed by a handsome man with an eyepatch.

"Hold the door!" He shouted breathlessly as they neared and Sally obliged, easily stopping the forward momentum of the hatch.

She smiled as she waited for them to reach her because it was her job but also because they looked so young and carefree. Well, apart from the eyepatch. "Almost left without you!" She said as they slowed to a stop in front of her.

"Thanks!" The blonde woman said. As she handed over her ticket the Wormhole X-treme theme suddenly rang out in the small space. Buffy Anne Summers sighed, shoving a hand into her jeans pocket and pulling out the tiniest phone Sally hand ever seen. "General Landry!" She greeted the caller, moving past Sally and turning right into the First Class area.

Her eyebrows raised, Sally collected Alexander Lavelle Harris and Willow Anne Rosenburg's boarding passes and waved them past. _General_ Landry? Not what she had expected. Sally liked to make a game of guessing which of her passengers were going where. She'd had these three pegged as backpacking around Europe before college but a simple phone call had her swiftly indulging in all her guiltiest fantasies. Were they spies? Sally wondered as she began the Safety Presentation for the benefit of the First Class passengers. Assassins? They didn't look like any armed forces Sally had ever seen. With satisfaction, she noticed Buffy flamboyantly turning her phone off a moment before Sally was supposed to remind them that electronic devices were to remain switched off for the duration of the flight. So they were seasoned travellers then... but who wasn't in this day and age.

She could tell this was gonna bug her all day.

**l**

Cam yawned as he punched the final glyph on the DHD and the Stargate lit up with a woosh. Stepping back from the DHD, he tapped in his IDC code on the small device he wore strapped to his wrist at all times. Stifling another yawn, he shook his head, cursing the lack of foresight that had left them without coffee that morning. He'd left Sam trying to wake Jackson up while he trudged the four miles to the Stargate to make their check in. He was only, he checked his watch as he raised his hand to his radio, twenty minutes late.

His radio squawked to life before he could touch it. "SG-1, this is Stargate Command, do you copy?" General Landry asked.

"This is SG-1, go ahead." Cam replied, struck by the urgency in the General's voice.

"We've got a lead on Faith." General Landry said and Cam felt a rush of elation sweep through him. "We sent a MALP and Vala to investigate."

"Vala?" Cam questioned.

There was a pause and then General Landry continued. "All of our teams are currently off-world with our allies or on medical leave. Miss Mal Doran is familiar with P4X-32Z and volunteered to accompany the MALP until a team could be recalled to investigate."

"Jackson, Sam, pack up." Cam ordered. "We're on our way." He told the General.

"SG-12 is already in the Gateroom, ready to go." General Landry told him.

"Oh." Cam said, very quietly, just to himself.

"We've already attempted to dial P4X-32Z and failed to get a lock. We were about to try again when you dialled in." General Landry continued.

"Mitchell, you go." Jackson's voice was surprisingly alert for someone who'd been drooling the last time he'd seen him. "Sam can take over here." They must have managed to get some coffee, Cam thought irrelevantly.

"I'll hold SG-12 back another five minutes." The General agreed after a moment's pause. "Colonel Mitchell, you'll take command on P4X-32Z, Colonel Carter, you'll take over on PX1-767. Stargate Command out."

The Stargate shut down with a crackle of displaced energy and Cam grinned.

"Mitchell, the address glyphs in order are-"

"I know." Cam interrupted Jackson, rapidly dialling Faith's planet. "Thanks guys." He continued as the Stargate came to life. "I owe you one."

"Bring coffee." Daniel told him as he ran lightly up the steps to the 'Gate and through the event horizon.


	4. SG13

**A/N**

Wow! Um... apparently, if you bang your head against one scene for months, completely blocked and unable to think of a way around it, when you do finally manage to write round it, the chapter that you were dreading and had no clue how to write will tumble from your fingertips and you'll wind up putting the scene in there anyway. I honestly had no clue that this chapter would turn out this long or be finished so quickly when I started it last week.

There is a minor change to the previous chapter that you might notice here when Buffy's phone rings...

**SG-13**

Vala was happily walking down the bustling main road of the small hamlet she had found when the radio she had carefully concealed on her person squawked to life. Ducking down a nearby alley she answered Mitchell's urgent call with her usual flippancy.

"Where are you?" Mitchell's voice sounded heavily accented through the radio.

"Lunnick." Vala told him, remembering how the houses had caught her attention shortly after she had arrived on P-whatever. "Look left."

Mitchell sighed. "Any sign of Faith?" He asked.

Suddenly Vala noticed the men leaving the inn opposite her alley. "Not exactly." Pressing back, deeper into the crevice between two houses, she whispered her reply into the radio.

Quickly switching it off, she watched as the Prior surveyed the street and then strode off down the village road. The other man, an unshaven and untidy individual whose general demeanour brought the thought of Jacek to the front of Vala's mind and raised her hackles, walked slowly in the opposite direction. Towards the 'Gate.

Vala ran quickly down to the end of the alley and climbed over the fence into the field beyond. She didn't turn the radio back on until she was two fields closer to the Stargate. By then, Mitchell had clearly moved past frustration and anger to boredom.

"Thought the damn inn-keeper was gonna have a heart attack when we walked in. Instead we camped out in Merlin's Library and Sam and Jackson spent half the night poking around the place so we overslept and were late for the check-in. And guess who didn't pack coffee?" He rambled to himself.

"That doesn't sound like Daniel." Vala said into her radio.

"Dammit Vala! Where are you?" Mitchell asked.

Vala looked around the boggy field. "I'm heading back to the Stargate." She told him, pushing on.

"What happened?"

"There's a Prior staying in the village."

There was a pause as Vala left the field and entered a patch of scrubby woodland and she could almost see SG-1 standing in front of the Stargate discussing what to do next.

"Alright," Mitchell said with a sigh. "Meet us back at the 'Gate."

"Ta da!" Vala sung out, spotting the top of the Stargate on her right and pushing her way through the last of the undergrowth.

Her large grin faded as she spotted just Mitchell standing with his back to her some way off. Squinting against the low sun, she walked slowly through the large clearing until she stood just behind Mitchell.

"Just you?" She asked and watched with amusement as he jumped and span round, his hand reaching for his weapon.

He relaxed as he saw her and just then, the Stargate activated. They both turned and watched as SG-12 trooped through the wormhole.

"Nope." Mitchell told her with a grin, loping off to join Major Hadden in front of the Stargate. Vala trailed after him, curious. "The Ori have a Prior in the village." Mitchell told the hard-looking Major, pointing at the few houses that could be seen from the Stargate.

"Galloway, Michaels, I want a watch on the lane." Haddon ordered, his voice gruff but low. "Mackenzie, conceal the MALP." His men disposed of; he walked closer to the cover of the bushes, Mitchell and Vala following him. "Any sign of Faith?" He asked quietly.

Mitchell looked at Vala and she shook her head. The Major cursed and Vala made a note to remember the particular words he used. They sounded wonderfully satisfying.

"There's a man on his way here and a Prior staying in the inn." She told him.

"Coming here?" The Major asked, leading the way into the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing and reaffirming his order to Lieutenant Mackenzie by swearing at him through his radio. "You're sure the Prior's staying and not just visiting?"

Vala shook her head again. "He had egg on his robes." She explained. "Has to be staying at the inn." She tapped the side of her nose with her finger and winked at Haddon.

"They know she's here too." Mitchell said.

"What, you've got ESP now?" Hadden scoffed. The look Vala threw at him was so scathing that the poor marine actually backed up a step, the tips of his ears reddening slightly. "It could just be co-incidence." The good Major blustered.

Mitchell waved his arm at Haddon and drew further back into the woodland. Crouching in the leaf mould together, they all watched as the man Vala had seen in the village shuffled towards the Stargate. Closer... closer, he drew level with the entrance into the clearing... and passed it, continuing down the dirt track past the Stargate. The three fought their way back through the undergrowth as soon as the man was out of sight, standing once again in the early morning sunlight.

"Colonel!" The low hail came from Mackenzie across the other side of the clearing and they all turned to look. The young Lieutenant was holding the video cam from the MALP. "You're gonna want to see this." He said, holding out the camera.

**l**

They were laughing and joking as they waited for their baggage to arrive when the Wormhole X-treme theme once more sounded its strident tones. Glaring daggers at Willow, who she suspected had secretly sabotaged her phone, Buffy answered the call. As she 'yes' and 'uh-huh'ed her way through the conversation, occasionally throwing in an 'I see' or something similar for good measure, Xander and Willow loaded up their cart with their luggage, giggling about the ringtone Xander had programmed Buffy's phone to use whenever General Landry called. Gently, they steered their friend towards Customs and she quickly finished the call.

"What was that about?" Willow asked as they strolled casually through the channel marked 'Nothing to Declare' despite the obscene amount of weapons concealed on them and in their luggage.

"That lead they had on Faith," Buffy said, her voice tight with carefully controlled emotion. "They don't have it anymore." A cloud of depression settled over the group.

"As Faith would say," Xander carefully remarked. "Fuck."

**l**

"How much longer?" Cam asked, crouching down beside Dr Lee.

Bill stared at the laptop plugged into the DHD uncertainly. "Uh..." He said, raising his hands from the keypad in a helpless gesture. "Another hour?"

"Great." Cam said, patting Bill on the shoulder and using him to rise to his feet. Another hour stuck in full view of the road, tampering with the Stargate. "Just great." He sighed. Rejoining Vala, he glanced at the raven-haired woman's striking profile. "So... this Prior?"

"I didn't recognise him." Vala said.

"I might." Cam suggested as nonchalantly as possible.

Vala's eyes gleamed. "You might." She agreed, eyeing him up and down. "But you'll need a disguise."

**l**

Giles was lonely. Sat behind a huge oak desk on the top floor of the new Council building he was in charge of a large multi-national organisation with hundreds of employees and was keeping his eye on two potential apocalypses and seven different prophecies. Despite this, he found himself missing the old days when had been just him, his Slayer and her friends in the library of her school. Life had been so much simpler then. Now the Scoobies were scattered to the four corners of the world and he...he frowned and stood as his office door opened but his expression cleared as soon as he saw Buffy, Willow and Xander enter.

"Buffy!" He exclaimed, walking round his desk and wrapping his arms around the petite woman. "Xander, Willow." He opened his arms to them too, looking at the sombre faces around him. "What's happened?" He asked when they were all gathered in one group hug.

As one, all three of them drew back and looked at each other. He could see them deciding who would tell him what had happened with mere glances between themselves. He settled back and waited. Finally it was Buffy who spoke.

"Faith's gone." She said simply and Giles felt as though the floor suddenly gaped beneath him.

"Dear Lord." He said faintly, taking off his glasses and polishing them. He shouldn't be surprised by Faith's desertion, the girl was after all one of the most unstable members of the Scooby Gang, but he'd thought that she had finally found her place among them, even settling down to some extent with Robin. She had come so far from the scared and damaged girl he hadn't seen, hadn't supported, when she had accidentally killed the Deputy Mayor. "Are you sure?" He asked, giving his glasses a final wipe and placing them back on his face.

"She left Robin a message." Buffy said, sprawling on one of the several comfortable chairs Giles had grouped around his office. He friends gathered in seats around her. "She said she had a Slayer dream and had to go and then she left." The Slayer said simply, closing her eyes and letting the fatigue she had let build up over the last three days wash over her.

Xander took over the tale. "She went to that SGC place we told you about after LA," the one-eyed man said with a sigh. "And then she went through the Stargate to another planet."

"Another planet?" Giles questioned, "Stargate?" He asked, wondering where he had heard the term before.

"Ooh, it's also called the Chappa'ai or Astria Porta." Willow said. "They use it to explore other planets and civilisations. Remember those explosions in the Antarctic that you thought might be Metee-kolen-ol? It was them, they..." Willow trailed off as Giles shot to his feet and swore viciously in Fyarl.

Crossing the room to one of the many bookcases that lined the walls, the Head Watcher plucked a book from the shelves, seemingly at random, and opened it. Quickly rifling through the slender tome's pages he soon found what he was searching for. Stifling the groan that rose in his throat for the others sakes, he closed the volume and snatched the glasses from his face. Make that eight prophecies and three apocalypses, he thought, furiously rubbing the lenses of his glasses, bloody fucking _hell_! How had he missed this one?

"Giles?" Willow said tentatively when the father figure they all adored had stood silently polishing his glasses for several long minutes.

He jumped slightly and hesitated before replacing his glasses. Taking another book, he came and sat back down with them, finding his place in the original book again and holding it out to them. Willow took it from him, studying the text carefully as he flipped through the second.

"Is this Latin?" She asked, frowning.

"An obscure dialect, yes." Giles told her, stopping on a page. "We haven't had much luck translating it so far."

"I don't understand." Xander said.

Giles took off his glasses and wiped them carefully. "When we took over the Council, I read all of the prophecy texts contained in the vaults." He told them, popping his glasses back on. "Among them I found one pertaining to the Mayor's ascension and Faith's seduction to his side." He confessed. "I didn't tell any of you at the time because I believed that some things are best left in the past." He passed Willow the second book.

Willow examined the book. "This is a later volume in the same series!" She said. "And it's in Latin... _for unless no doors are kept closed to her, he shall devour her with honeyed kindnesses and she will become the Dark One_." She said quietly, closing the book and laying on the low table between them.

"Okay, I don't understand either." Buffy said, frowning. "What has the Mayor got to do with Faith leaving now?"

"Is-is this, 'Dark One?" Willow asked falteringly, pointing at a phrase in the original book. Xander and Buffy peered over her shoulders to look.

Giles sighed. "I believe so. Also," he took the book from her and showed them a different section, "I believe that **this** refers to the Astria Porta."

Buffy grabbed the book from him, pouring over it as though sheer will-power alone could teach her not only Latin but the dialect used in the book. Finally she looked up at them.

"Maybe Dawn could figure it out?" She said hopefully.

"Take it." Giles told her and she smiled at him.

"I'd like to email a copy to Dr Jackson." Willow suggested, prying Buffy's fingers from the slim book with difficulty. "If it's to do with the Stargate, he might already know the dialect." She stood and left the room.

"Now," Giles said, looking at the other two. "Start again, from the beginning."

Glancing at Buffy, who still hadn't slept, snuggling in her armchair, Xander shrugged. "Faith called Robin and left a message on his answering machine." He explained.

"Dumping him." Buffy interjected, her eyes closed.

Xander nodded as Giles' eyebrows rose. "She said that she'd had a Slayer dream and she had to go away. She didn't know how long she was going to be gone."

"And dumped him." Buffy reminded them.

"And dumped him." Xander agreed. "He called us. The last we'd heard of her she was dropping that crystal volcano we found in the vaults off at the SGC and then she dropped out of contact so we went straight there." He continued awkwardly as Willow re-entered the room, handing the book back to Buffy.

"How did you get there?" Giles asked. "Never mind." He said, taking off his glasses to polish them. "Need I remind you of the dangers inherent in tapping-"

"You don't." Buffy said flatly from her almost prone position in the leather armchair. The small blonde opened her eyes and sat up, looking seriously at Giles. "You really don't. But Giles, it's _Faith_."

The words seemed to hang in the air after she'd said them and the four concentrated very hard on not looking at one another. Hindsight has twenty twenty vision after all and silently, in the depths of their souls, they all harboured a kernel of guilt about the events of the spring before Graduation.

Giles sighed finally, placing his glasses back on his nose. "What happened when you got there?" He asked heavily.

"She wasn't there." Buffy told him.

"She'd gone to another planet?" Giles asked.

"No." As Giles frowned, Buffy explained. "She'd left them that morning, heading for Cleveland on her bike."

"We got the last two seats on a flight to Cleveland." Willow said, gesturing to Xander and herself.

"While I was waiting for the next flight, I got a call from General Landry saying that Faith had been back and had gone through the Stargate." Buffy told him. "So I checked into a hotel..."

Buffy broke off as the door opened and Andrew entered, wheeling a small hostess trolley. Fussily the thin man placed a plate of confectionary on the table and passed Giles a porcelain cup of tea. Setting out doilies, he served Buffy and Xander with coffee, leaving the coffeepot on the table, next to a teapot that matched Giles' cup. Willow was handed a mocha topped with whipped cream and Andrew sat in an empty chair and folded his hands, an attentive look on his face.

"Get out." Giles told him.

Andrew pouted and Giles glared. "Fine." The younger man said, getting up. "I'll go. But you can't keep it from me forever." He stalked out, pulling the trolley behind him.

"When are we going to tell him?" Xander asked, reaching for a Twinkie.

"Mumph!" Giles said emphatically around a mouthful of jam doughnut. "Never!" He swallowed. "I owe him fifty pounds."

Xander choked on the Twinkie. "You too?" He coughed.

Buffy smiled ruefully. "A hundred bucks." She said, eyeing Willow's mocha enviously.

The redhead spread the fingers of one hand wide, drinking deeply from her mug.

"Five hundred?" Xander guessed.

Willow shook her head, putting the mug down on a doily. A cream moustache decorated her upper lip. "Five dollars." She told them, licking her lips with a contented sigh.

Buffy blinked. "Where were we?" She asked.

"You were in a hotel." Giles prompted.

"Oh yeah! So when I got out of the shower that evening I had a missed call from General Landry and a text from Xander in Cleveland to say that he'd called and Faith had gone off to a space battle."

Giles frowned. "Space battle?" He queried. He was liking the sound of all this less and less.

Xander nodded. "With SG-1." He confirmed.

"Against SG-1?" Now Giles was thoroughly confused.

Buffy frowned. "No," she said. "_With_ SG-1, _against_ some Aura people who were invading the Galaxy or something. One of our ships was destroyed and Faith and Dr Jackson somehow got onboard one of the Aura ships but they got separated and the ship left after the battle." Giles leaned forward, fascinated by the third hand tale his Slayer was telling. "The rest of SG-1 repaired their other ship and managed to rescue Dr Jackson, but not Faith." Buffy picked up an éclair and bit deeply into it, savouring the taste.

"So Buffy lost her temper, told them that we'd send someone to find her and flew to Cleveland." Xander told him.

Giles spat out a mouthful of his tead. "Dear Lord!" He exclaimed, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. "Why?"

"SGC teams are usually just four people." Xander said calmly as Buffy busied herself with the éclair. "Surely we can spare four people?"

Giles leant back in his chair, sipping his tea thoughtfully. "Who were you thinking of sending?" He asked.

"We thought, someone who's good with the technology," Xander informed him and Giles' eyes flickered to Willow. "So Wills emailed Oz." Giles' eyebrows rose in surprise and Xander grinned.

"He's meeting me in Trafalgar Square the day after tomorrow." Willow said, blushing faintly.

"Since when?" Buffy exclaimed, sitting bolt upright.

Willow took a sip of her drink. "He'd replied when I emailed the prophecy to Dr Jackson." She explained.

"Who else?" Giles asked.

"We need a Slayer over eighteen." Buffy said challengingly. "All of Robin's are too young."

Polishing his glasses, Giles considered. "Julie Wilson." He said finally. "She was a trainee doctor when Willow cast the spell. She went on to qualify afterwards. Lovely woman, if a trifle, ah," He huffed on his glasses and wiped them. "Shall we say, obsessed, with demonic anatomy." As Buffy cringed, Giles stood and walked to his desk. Pressing the intercom button, he spoke. "Andrew, call Julie Wilson and ask her to meet me here as soon as possible." Switching the intercom off, he sat back down.

"That's two." He reminded them.

"Right!" Willow exclaimed. "So Xander called General O'Neill and asked him if there was anyone young and good he could recommend."

"We're not a military organisation and they are." Xander explained as Giles' eyebrows flew skyward once more. "Besides I didn't think he'd really be able to..."

"What?" Giles asked

"He said he'd call me back." Xander told him, reaching for another Twinkie.

Giles closed his eyes. "Dear Lord." He breathed. "Who else?"

Buffy winced. "We were kinda hoping that your Slayer was a magic-user." She confessed. "'cause we need to send a Watcher."

Giles frowned. "As Willow knows, the Watcher with the most aptitude in that area so far is... oh no!" He said firmly. "_Not_ Andrew."

A silence fell over the group as they finished their beverages, racking their minds for an alternative. Buffy poured herself another coffee and Willow pouted as the Slayer deliberately moved the coffeepot out of her reach.

"So Faith is on an enemy space ship..." Giles mused as they all took a bite of cake.

Frantically shaking her head, Buffy swallowed. "They tracked her to a different planet, but she'd already left." She explained.

"Why can't she just, come back?" Giles asked.

Willow shook her head. "It's not that easy." She explained. "You have to know Earth's 'Gate address."

"Yeah, and they've got this shield thing which they keep over the Stargate if you don't enter a code before you go through the wormhole." Xander added.

"Wormhole?" Giles asked faintly.

Willow nodded. "The Stargate actually creates a stable wormhole between the original 'Gate and the one on the planet dialled. Or dialling. The science behind it all is really quite interesting and seems to focus mainly on-"

"Wills," Xander gently stopped his friend as Giles' eyes glazed over. "We get the idea."

Buffy yawned and the slim redhead apologised contritely.

"God Willow, it's not you!" Buffy rushed to reassure her friend. "It's just," She yawned again, "I'm so... tired!"

Looking at his watch, Giles saw that it was almost ten o'clock at night. "Bed." He said firmly to the jet-lagged trio. "All of you. We'll finish this tomorrow."

It was a measure of how tired they all were that they raised no objections, merely saying their goodnights and leaving after more hugs had been bestowed. Sitting alone in his office after they had gone, Giles picked up the book containing the untranslated prophecy. He might not be lonely any more but he was suddenly terribly afraid.

**l**

His apartment door was ajar. The lock showed no sign of being forced and cautiously, Jon pushed it open, peeking round the doorjamb and into the room. No intruder lingered in his living room and he edged into the room, silently opening his closet and stowing his laptop and rucksack. Cautiously he crept further into the room as Major General Jack O'Neill strolled out of his kitchen, beer in hand.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jon relaxed and grabbed the beer from Jack. Taking a long drain from the bottle, he froze. "Nobody died, right? Teal'c, Daniel, Carter, they're all okay?"

Jack looked into Jon's pleading familiar eyes and nodded, heading back into the kitchen for another beer. Jon followed him.

"So what _do_ you want?" Jon persisted as Jack popped the cap of his bottle.

"How'd ya like to come back?" Jack asked, taking a swig from the bottle.

Jon's eyes lit up and then his face shuttered in a look Jack had often seen mirrored in reflections of his own face. "What's the catch?" The boy asked warily.

Jack drank from the bottle again. "Got any whisky?" He asked.

"Cupboard on your right." Jon told him, passing him a glass.

Jack poured a generous measure, knocking it back in one. Hissing as the licquor warning his throat, he looked Jon in the eyes for the first time since the younger man had arrived home. "Vampires and Demons and Witches..." He said solemnly, poured another finger, knocked it back again.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Jon exclaimed.

Jack nodded understandingly. "Remember Woodstock?" he asked, handing Jon a business card. "Call me... Captain O'Neil."

He took Jon's last beer with him as he left, shutting the front door quietly behind him. Jon fingered the IOA business card thoughtfully. Woodstock...

_Jack stumbled away from the longhaired hippie with a cockney accent now giggling on the floor as he watched his hand move. Suddenly sober, he lurched, clutching his neck as blood trickled past his fingers. That was it, he decided, no more drugs. He was catching the first bus to a recruitment centre he could find. _

Jon polished off his beer. "Vampires and Demons and Witches..." He said, reaching for the whisky. "Oh my."

**l**

"Knock, knock."

Cam's voice raised Sam's head from behind the Ancient Control Device. Grinning, she stood up and dusted herself down, accepting a hot Starbucks cup from the dark-haired Colonel.

"I'm impressed." She said, picking up her work tablet as she took a sip and putting it on the Ancient Control Device. "Has Daniel forgiven you?"

"It was his turn!" Cam cried, exasperated.

Sam tapped on the tablet, sipping her mochaccino. "Uh-huh." She said absently. Suddenly she stared disconcertingly at Cam. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure." Cam cleared his throat. "Five by five."

Sam looked at him sympathetically and Cam stared stoically back. Suddenly, he thought he understood why Faith used the phrase. Blandly returning Sam's gaze, he sipped from his cup.

"How's it going with Merlin's Scales?" He asked, patting the Ancient Device and she was off, talking about energy outputs, feedback loop differentials, and a whole other bunch of stuff he barely half understood. Cam just stood and sipped his coffee, wondering what he was doing there.

**l**

Giles was sitting alone in the dining room when Buffy stumbled in, still her pyjamas, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She grunted in reply to his pleasant greeting, curled into a chair and devoured a tray of bacon before Willow and Xander had joined them. He waited until they all looked reasonably awake before reopening the subject of last evening's conversation.

"Julie's excited about the opportunity," he said neutrally as Andrew bustled in with more bacon and fresh coffee. "As for the fourth position, I thought perhaps, Major Gatsby?"

The breakfasting trio's faces were full of dismay, while if Andrew's ears were pricked any further, they'd be higher than his head. Buffy swallowed a mouthful of bacon.

"He's so old." She objected.

Xander frowned as he cut up a sausage. "Besides, his only specialty is kinda cancelled out by the third person." His eye flickered to Andrew's avid figure.

"Out Andrew." Giles said.

"Oh, but-"

"Now!" He ordered and Andrew sulkily left the room.

"What about Dawnie?" Xander suggested. "She's good with the languages and almost a Watcher..." His voice trailed out as he noticed Buffy's death glare. "Maybe I didn't think that all the way through..." He admitted.

"Well unless either of you has a better idea?" Giles suggested, looking at the two women.

"Send Andrew." Willow mumbled grumpily around a mouthful of toast as Buffy shrugged.

Giles set his teacup down with a firm clink. "We are not," He said clearly. "Sending Andrew."

Buffy pushed her chair back from the table and rubbed her full belly. "God, I need a shower." She said, rising from the table. "We'll talk about it later Giles."

Xander and Willow weren't far behind her in leaving and Giles was left to finish his newspaper in peace, wondering who else they could send.

**l**

Bored and frustrated, Cam sighed. Frowning, Daniel raised his head from a dusty tome and glared at him as he stood staring gloomily out of the window.

"Why don't you go back to the SGC?" The archaeologist suggested.

Mitchell turned his head to look at him. "What?" He asked.

"Sam and I can manage on our own here," Daniel shrugged. "And I'm sure the SGC is short-handed at the moment. Landry could probably use you."

"You're sure?" Mitchell asked, one hand already on his pack.

Daniel nodded. "Go." He said. "I'll tell Sam."

Closing the door behind him, Cam lifted his face to the weak sunlight, closing his eyes briefly before he strode down the alley and turned right.

Back to the SGC. He could find out what advances the Ori had made, see how SG-12 were doing with 'Gate addresses Dr Lee had pulled from Terluna, catch up on his paperwork...

"Colonel Mitchell!"

Meurik's deep voice pulled him from his inner musings as he reached the gate out of the village. Hurrying, the Governor was slightly out of breath when he reached him, his eyes lingering on Cam's pack.

"Leaving already?" He asked anxiously.

"Just me." Cam told him with a smile. "Colonel Carter and Dr Jackson are staying on a bit longer. Hey, how's Valencia?" He asked, remembering. "Sam said they hadn't seen her?"

Meurik grinned, something Cam hadn't thought the man was capable of. "She is indeed an excellent warrior." He said, as proud as if he'd fathered the girl himself. "More than the equal of any of our men. At present, she is away with a hunting party."

"That's great." Cam said, reassured. He began to back towards the gate. "Well, I gotta get going."

"How's Faith?" Muerik blurted and Cam felt a shaft of pain lance through his soul.

"Good." He blurted, and kicked himself. "Gone, actually."

"Gone?" Meurik frowned as Cam kept backing up.

"Yeah," Cam nodded, glancing at the fields through the gap in the wall. "I've really gotta go." He said apologetically, walking through the gate. "We'll talk next time!"

"We will?" Muerik asked the air, frowning after the Colonel. Faith had gone? Gone where? Concerned, the Governor hurried to Merlin's Library, determined to find out.

**l**

As she stepped up out of the gloom of the Charing Cross tube station, he was the first person she saw, staring up at Nelson's Column, his hair bright in the midday sun. He turned around before she reached him, sniffing the breeze, and she waved to him. He smiled, one corner of his mouth lifting lopsidedly.

"Hi." She said with a self-conscious smile.

"Hey." He nodded to her.

Willow started walking and Oz fell into step alongside her. "How are you?" She asked.

"Good." Oz nodded. "You?"

"Good!" Willow nodded vigorously and an awkward silence fell.

"So... still batting for the home team?" Oz asked casually as they completed their second lap of Trafalgar Square.

"Oh yes!" Willow latched onto the conversational ploy like a lifesaver. "Ask anyone, they'll tell you; That Willow, they'd say, she's all about the lesbian love action!"

She blushed scarlet as soon as she realised what she'd said and Oz chuckled, coming to a halt near the National Gallery. Willow stopped with him, barely able to look him in the eyes.

The pink-haired man sighed, looking at the red-faced woman in front of him. "What's up?" He asked, his lips curled into a curious smile.

"It's Faith." Willow told him, and one of Oz's eyebrows rose.

**l**

"Receiving Colonel Mitchell's IDC." Walter announced, retracting the iris.

General Landry nodded, striding out of the Control Room and into the Gateroom in time to greet his second-in-command with a frown. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked roughly.

The Colonel grinned. "Couldn't stay away sir." He said, stepping off the ramp. "Seriously though sir, I think I was driving Carter and Jackson up the wall." He looked around. "How are things?"

The General let out a short bark of laughter. "Quieter than the grave." He said wryly. "All our teams are off-world and Miss Summers' group still hasn't arrived. SG-12's due to check in from P3X-492 at fourteen hundred hours." He informed the Colonel, walking him to the elevators and waiting.

"Any luck so far?" He asked and Hank could see the eagerness in his eyes.

Sighing, he shook his head. "We're circulating a still from the recording to all of our allies," he told him. "But there's been no word so far."

His face gray and tired, Mitchell nodded as the elevator arrived and he stepped inside. Hank stood, deep in thought, after the elevator doors had closed. Shaking himself out of his wordless reverie, he blinked several times before making his way back to the Control Room.

**l**

The dining room at dinnertime, teeming with Slayers 'carbing up' before patrol and Watchers arguing loudly about which groups would go where between mouthfuls of lasagne, was perhaps not the best place to have a conversation but the four huddled around the head of the table were certainly trying.

"Lady Puddlemere?" Giles suggested desperately.

Buffy shook her head. "She wouldn't pass their fitness tests." She shouted back. "Her Ladyship is a beach ball Giles!"

"I hate to say it, G-man." Xander yelled into Giles' ear.

Wincing at his volume, Giles followed Xander's gaze to the foot of the table where Andrew was trying to break up an impromptu catfight over the last piece of cake.

"No!" The Head Watcher bellowed as the Slayers present in the room all cocked their heads and lulled the conversation.

Startled by his sudden outburst, the majority of the room turned to look at him and the two squabbling slayers backed slowly away from each other as a low whining noise presaged a showy display of lights between them. The light slowly coalesced into the thin figure of a young man in faded blue jeans and a gray shirt, a black rucksack slung over one shoulder. Next to him, Andrew squeaked and dived for cover under the table as a room suddenly full of very serious people pointed a lot of sharp weapons in his general direction.

"Crap." Jon said, looking around him. He put his hands up. "I come in peace." He told them. "I've got a delivery for Buffy Summers?" He looked around at the unsmiling people. "I take it General O'Neill didn't call to tell you I was coming?" He asked, frowning.

"General?" A voice squeaked from below the table and Jon stepped back to see a kid with dirty blonde hair curled underneath it.

A petite blonde at the other end of the table stood, a deadly-looking silver and red scythe in her hands. "Follow me." She said.

Jon did as he was told, watching the two men and other woman that rose with her carefully as they left the room. The boy from under the table followed, squeezing into an elevator Jon didn't even notice until it arrived with them, an eager expression on his face. Standing in silence with them, Jon stared at the elevator doors until they opened and Miss Summers stepped out. The oldest man, the one Jon couldn't place from Jack's briefing, turned to the boy as they reached a wooden door five storeys up.

"Go away." He said rudely.

Surprised, John watched the crestfallen boy shuffle out of sight, dragging his feet every step of the way.

"Sorry about that." The man apologised urbanely. "We're trying to keep the news from Andrew."

Jon eyed the man uncertainly, not sure if he trusted him or not. The last thing he needed on the mission that would get him back into the Stargate program was another Harry Maybourne.

Looking around the four, Jon picked the blonde as the de facto leader and sketched a smart salute at her. "Captain O'Neil, reporting for duty." He told her. "Miss Summers I presume?" As she nodded, bemused, he handed over the small DVD case he had carried from Jack's office to the Odyssey, to the dining room below.

"O'Neill?" The Englishman mused as Miss Summers handed the case to the slight red-haired woman Jon thought might be Willow Rosenburg at her side.

"Just one 'l'" Jon told him. "And you are?"

"Terribly sorry." The other man apologised again, his English accent crisp as he held out a hand for Jon to shake. "Lord Rupert Giles." He introduced himself.

"We're just awfully thrilled with the Lordship her Majesty so kindly bestowed upon old Rupes." The younger man mocked with an atrocious English accent and an infectious grin. "I'm Xander." He said, dropping the accent.

Jon grinned back at him as the redhead pulled a section of the bookcases out and slid it along hidden tracks to reveal a flat screen TV so large that Jon could feel himself start to drool. "Jon O'Neil." He said absently, staring as she turned on the large computer below the television and inserted the disc. She smiled at him, tucking her long hair behind one ear.

"Willow Rosenburg." She introduced herself, blushing slightly as she collected a wireless keyboard and mouse and stood.

Jon noticed that there was no computer on the large desk at one end of the room and she smiled as she followed his gaze.

"Giles is a complete technophobe." Miss Rosenburg explained, handing the case back to Miss Summers. "We use this and Andrew sets it up if he needs to use it while we're not here."

"Yes, well, shall we?" Lord Giles said, gesturing to the chairs scattered in front of the wall.

They seated themselves while the computer loaded and Miss Rosenburg pulled up the disc folder. Sat in a comfortable recliner, Jon just had time to silently mourn the lack of popcorn or beer and then the file began to play.

**l**

The camera showed brightly lit rippling water which it struggled to focus on before it plunged in and the picture dissolved into static. Seconds later, it reformed to glide slowly forward before coming to a rocking halt, focussing on a brilliant purple sunrise. Dark fields stretched into the distance and a pair of boots could be heard clicking on stone before a slender leather-clad thigh came into shot.

"Aha!" The thigh said. "First stop, the village." And a dark haired woman skipped out of the clearing, turning left.

Minutes passed and the clouds turned a vivid blood red as the sun began to peer over the horizon, gilding their edges. Two heads, one dark, one light, bobbed over the top of the right-hand hedge that separated the clearing from the path. A low murmuring of voices was too far away for the camera's microphone to pick up clearly as two women with large bundles turned into the clearing. The young blonde girl in the lead seemed to be carrying a large black animal, behind her, watching her feet, trudged Faith with a large pack.

She looked up and saw the camera. Dropping the pack near the DHD, she ran to the camera, her body obscuring the lens, her exploring arms rocking the camera.

"Faith."

The disembodied voice came as Faith crouched, her face filling the camera frame as she ran her eyes over its casing. "I think this is from Earth." She said, grinning.

"Faith." The voice called again, quiet and sombre and she stepped back to reveal the blonde crouched over the body of a large dog.

"What's up?" She asked lightly, going to the girl.

She sobbed, dropping her face into her hands as she knelt beside the dark shape of the dog. "He's dead!"

Faith dropped to a crouch beside her, stroking the girl's fair hair as she wept. She rested one hand on the dog's ribcage as she comforted her. "He was a good dog." She said awkwardly, looking up as a dishevelled figure appeared in the clearing gate.

"Shit, Mallie!" Faith exclaimed, dragging the girl to her feet. "We haven't got time for this, it's your dad!"

The other girl moaned, and Faith shook her, shoving her at the DHD. "I don't know how to work it, so just _dial_." She told the girl roughly, snatching up their pack and pocketing something as the man in the gateway gave a bellow of rage and began to lumber towards them.

The girl's hands moved rapidly over the console and a blue light once more flickered eerily in the clearing. Shoving the pack into the girl's arms she pushed her towards the camera and the girl ran past as Faith grabbed the zat from her pocket and fired a bolt of white light over the man's head. He flung himself to the ground, clutching his head as she retreated towards the camera. It bobbed slightly and worked hard to focus on half of her knee.

"Goodbye Kado." Her husky voice floated down from above the camera and it focussed sharply on three bolts of light that flew from above and briefly illuminated the dog's corpse before it vanished and so had the knee.

The shimmering blue light that played over the clearing died abruptly and the man popped his head up, hauling himself to his feet with a curse as soon as he realised the coast was clear. Muttering inaudibly to himself and with an evil glare at the camera, he left the clearing, turning left down the lane.

**l**

Cam hit rewind and watched the whole encounter happen in reverse. Punching play as Faith backed rapidly out of the clearing, he watched the top of her head move along the hedge, counting the seconds until she appeared in the frame again. A throat clearing in his doorway sent him spinning round and he paused the tape.

"What are you doing?" The General asked gruffly, entering Cam's office.

"I was, uh, just checking the recording for any more clues." Cam told him, gesturing to where Faith's face filled the screen.

"Ah." Hank said as the Colonel switched the television off rapidly, standing at ease. "Good idea." He told him.

"What can I do for you Sir?" Cam asked the General.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Hank told him. "I was just on my way home, fancied going out for a beer and wondered if you'd care to join me?"

The Colonel smiled at him. "No thanks Sir," he gestured to his pristine desk. "I've got a backlog of paperwork..."

"You're sure I can't tempt you?" Hank pressed. "I know a place that does great buffalo wings."

Mitchell shook his head. "I'm good." He said, sitting back down at his desk.

"You know," Hank said, trying a different attack. "General Saxton once said-"

"Sir!" Mitchell interrupted him firmly. "Enjoy your buffalo wings." He insisted, pulling some papers towards him. "I'm fine. Really."

Thwarted in his goal, Hank left the stubborn son of a bitch to it.

Wrapped in his own thoughts, staring blindly into space after the General had gone, it took a while before Cam realised that he was gazing at a copy of Faith's one and only report. Dropping his head into his hands, he groaned as he faced the facts. He wasn't fine at all.

**l**

As Xander showed Captain O'Neil out for a tour around the building, Buffy turned to Willow and Giles.

"Well?" She asked them once the door was safely shut. "What do you think?"

Giles wiped his glasses slowly, frowning. "There's a darkness behind his eyes." He said finally. "He hides it well but..." He trailed off, replacing his glasses and shrugging.

"I like him." Willow said decisively, picking up the DVD case and opening it. "I think we can trust him." She took a sealed white envelope from the case, passing it to Buffy with a mysterious smile as her friend stared at her in surprise.

Frowning as she ripped the envelope open, barely recognising the hieroglyphs on the front as her own name, Buffy pulled a single sheet out and unfolded it to stare incomprehensibly at the illegible handwriting. Peering over her shoulder, Willow and Giles stared at the small piece of white paper.

"Does that say Buffy?" That woman asked, pointing at the first word, distinguished from the rest by virtue of being slightly higher and ending in a squiggle that could feasibly be a comma.

More experienced at translating difficult texts, Giles frowned at the page. "Jon knows more about the SGC than anyone not in the program," he translated slowly, groping for the structure of the sentence as he deciphered its meaning. "I trust him with my life!" He paused as he digested this, his eyebrows raised. "His... Is that sackrat?"

Willow squinted at the word. "I think it's secret..." She said carefully.

"His _secret_ is his to tell, but as a group with more than its fair share of secrets I'm sure you will... imberfram?" Giles continued.

"_Understand_!" Buffy exclaimed excitedly as they gradually uncovered the letter's meaning.

Getting into the scrawl of the handwriting, Willow took over the translation. "General Landry is expecting SG-13 to report to the SGC in eight days time at oh nine hundred so I... haps?"

"Hope." Giles told her.

"Hope you've got your other people picked out." Willow finished. "And it's signed by General O'Neill." She added.

"Is that our time or theirs?" Buffy asked after a pause, still frowning at the letter.

"Theirs I imagine." Giles told her, polishing his glasses

Surprised by this latest twist, the trio stood in silence for long moments before a close to tears Andrew burst into the room.

"Food fight!" He wailed and they all rushed off to impose order on chaos.

**l**

"You wanted to see me sir?" Cam asked, poking his head around the General's door after his command to enter.

"Ah, Mitchell!" General Landry waved him in and Cam closed the door behind himself, standing at ease in front of the General.

"I've just had a call from General O'Neill informing me that SG-13 will be arriving in eight days time." The General informed him.

Cam frowned. "We don't have a SG-13." He said slowly, confused. "There hasn't been a SG-13 since P3X-666."

After Doctor Frasier's death during SG-13's inaugural mission, General Hammond had elected not to reform the team. Instead, he had parcelled off its members to other teams as vacancies became available and the designation SG-13 had been retired from use. The somewhat superstitious base tended to ignore the fact that there was a gap between SG-12 and SG-14, perhaps considering the designation cursed.

"There is now." Landry said grimly and Cam suddenly understood.

So they were definitely coming. He wondered who she was sending.

"What time are they expected to arrive?" He asked.

"Nine hundred hours." The General told him, a steely glint in his eyes. "I'd like to keep this quiet for the time being." He said.

"Understood." Mitchell told him and frowned. Did he?

Landry dismissed him with a nod, pulling some paperwork towards him, and Cam let himself out. Eight days... He'd find her. He had to.

**l**

Used to a completely different time-zone, Jon stared at his bedroom ceiling for most of the night. A few times he approached something near sleep but he was always jerked awake by a slamming door or a loud quarrel. His curtains began to lighten as the sun rose behind them and Jon slipped from his bed. The silence had been undisturbed for a couple of hours but Jon knew if he went to sleep now he wouldn't wake up until the afternoon. Making his way to the large kitchen Xander had shown him last night, he opened a cavernous refrigerator and stared into it.

"Excuse me."

The small voice came from his waist and he glanced down at a young girl in pink pyjamas who couldn't have been older than twelve. Apologising he stepped back and she stretched for a carton of orange juice just out of her reach. Jon handed it to her and she smiled at him.

"Thanks." She said. "I'm Tiffany."

"Jon." He introduced himself.

She giggled, grabbing a glass. "Captain O'Neil." She said, dimples showing at the corners of her mouth and Jon suddenly recognised as the girl holding the extremely large mace when he had first arrived.

Horrified, he stared at her as she closed the refrigerator door. She was just a kid! He caught sight of his reflection in the refrigerator door and winced, running a hand down his face.

"So, Tiffany!" He said, grabbing another glass and sitting at a table with her. "What's it like being a slayer?"

"Brilliant!" She grinned, her eyes bright. "Except, I get used as bait a lot."

Jon choked on his OJ.

**l**

Sam checked Cam's office on her way to the infirmary but he wasn't there. As soon as Doctor Lam was finished with her, she tried again. This time he was there, hunched over his desk. Walking up behind him, she gasped as she caught sight of what he was drawing over his shoulder. He quickly covered the cloven monster glaring malevolently at her with a requisition report and stood.

"Sam!" He said with a grin. "When did you get back?"

"Just now." She told him, still disturbed by the figure he had sketched. "Cam?"

"I was just doodling." He said in answer to her unspoken question. "The commissary's got some blue jello left." He divulged. "Wanna get go some?"

Sam nodded. "Sure." She agreed uneasily, following him out of his office.

They walked to the commissary in silence. Collecting her jello, Sam peered up at Cam. He was unusually sombre and more reserved than she'd ever seen him, even when he'd been in hospital. Considering the best way to approach him, she waited until they had sat down at an empty table before speaking.

"Any news of Faith?" Sam asked and Cam wrestled with the temptation to tell her about SG-13.

He shrugged, toying with the pie he didn't really want. "We've checked twelve of the addresses and we're keeping a camera running on P4X-32Z." He told her instead. "So far nothing." He grimaced.

"We'll find her." She said reassuringly and Cam forced himself to smile.

"So what are your plans now you're back?" He changed the subject, leaning back in his chair and listening as she told him about the experiments she had planned for the data she'd gleaned from Merlin's Scales.

**l**

Hungry, Buffy wandered into the kitchen, wondering what the hold up with breakfast was. The volume of noise that greeted her as she pushed open the door gave her some clue as to what the problem might be. Tapping her foot as she stood in the doorway, Buffy surveyed the cavernous kitchen. People thronged the room, laughing, talking arguing and even, Buffy's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of Willow and Kennedy, making out. In the centre of it all sat Captain O'Neil, laughing and joking with a large group of Slayers as behind him, Andrew pulled a batch of doughnuts from the fat fryer. Shrugging, Buffy grabbed a coffee and set off through the crowd.

"You're wrong," Miss Summers' voice came from behind him as Tiffany and Patricia argued about the best way to get Volsh'nik blood out of your favourite outfit and Jon shot to his feet.

"You soak it in vinegar, rub essence of lavender into the stain, rinse and repeat." The Slayer continued. "Voila, goo-free blouse!" She sat down as the girls hailed her, eyeing him with amusement. "At ease, Captain." She told him with a smile.

Jon relaxed back into his chair as the kid from last night, Andrew, placed a plate piled with doughnuts and a fresh pot of coffee on the table.

"They're hot!" He warned, bustling away.

Seeing the way the mound of doughnuts quickly diminished as the Slayers helped themselves, Jon quickly grabbed one.

"So," he said to Miss Summers, pouring himself another coffee while he was at it. "What's on the agenda today?"

She swallowed a bite of doughnut and grinned. "I was gonna work-out after breakfast," she told him. "Maybe spar a little..." Her grin widened and the slayers around the table quietened. "Wanna join me?"

His eyebrows raised in surprise, Jon considered the offer carefully as the slayers stared at him, waiting for his reply. What the hell, he decided, it couldn't be worse than sparring with Teal'c.

"Sure." He agreed and bit into his doughnut.

_Hot_!

**l**

Slayers flocked into the gym by the dozen, filling the edges of the room. Jon caught sight of Andrew taking bets as he set up a video camera. He ran his tongue around his jam-burnt mouth and winced, hoping he wasn't about to get his ass kicked. Shaking his head at Xander, he rejected the padding that the other man was holding out and the one-eyed man frowned.

"Sure?" He asked and shrugged when Jon said he was.

Miss Summers was smiling as she came to meet him in the centre of the room. Jon couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. They circled each other warily and Jon threw a few sloppy punches she easily avoided, hoping to make her underestimate him. Whether or not it worked was debatable as she lunged at him. Neatly side-stepping, Jon flawlessly executed a move that Teal'c had once shown him and the slayers crowding the room gasped as the Slayer landed flat on her back, skidding a few feet on the matting.

She quickly flipped to her feet, grinning widely and things pretty much went downhill from there. As he limped off the mat afterwards, knowing he'd regret the damage he'd just inflicted on his knees one day, Xander silently handed him an icepack, his eye sympathetic. Jon really appreciated him not saying 'I told you so'.

**l**

Wondering where he had put his glasses, Daniel squinted at the spine of the book he held.

"Whoa!" Mitchell exclaimed from his doorway. "Did you bring enough books back?"

Standing in the middle of an office filled with crates, Daniel frowned. "I _think_ so." He said. "Muerik said I could bring anything I needed back with me." He shrugged.

"So you bought the whole damn library!" Mitchell asked, picking his way into Daniel's office.

"Any luck finding Faith yet?" Daniel snapped irritably and regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. "Sorry," he apologised with a sigh as Mitchell's smile faded. "It's just there's something niggling in the back of my head." He explained. "Something I've read, or seen. Something important. What did you want?"

"I just stopped by to see if you wanted to check out P6C-281 with us." Mitchell invited him with a shrug. "The MALP showed some ruins in the distance. Figured it might be your thing?"

Tempted, Daniel hesitated before shaking his head. "I've really got to track this down." He said, gesturing at the books that littered his office.

Mitchell shrugged, retracing his route back out of Daniel's office. "It's all good to me." He said solemnly and Daniel felt a flicker of guilt.

"Good luck!" He called after Mitchell as he vanished.

**l**

Whistling tunelessly to himself as he worked, Xander slowly planed the doorjamb into shape. Running a professional hand over the smooth join between old wood and new, Xander grinned, feeling a sense of satisfaction in a job well done. He rarely got the chance to work with his hands anymore, normally someone called a repair-guy before he had a chance to get to it. Since Sunnydale had fallen into the ground, his life seemed to have become a non-stop succession of meetings, global jet-setting and fights for his life. Not that he was complaining, it was just good to be given a simple repair job and to watch the wood once more take shape under his hands.

Carefully packing the tools that littered the threshold of the front door away into his toolbox, Xander sat on the top step when he was finished, the heavy door behind him ajar, content to just sit and watch people pass by. Catching sight of a glimpse of shocking pink in the distance, Xander stood and squinted, his right eye struggling hard to compensate for the loss of his left. It wasn't until the blur of pink was quite close that the face below swam into focus and Xander grinned.

"Oz!" He greeted as the short man drew even closer, grinning back at him.

Running lightly up the steps, the pink-haired werewolf hesitated before briefly embracing the other man in a fraternal hug. Stepping back, they grinned at each other.

"What happened?" Oz asked as Xander picked up his toolbox.

Xander's spare hand flew unconsciously to the patch covering his empty eye socket and he grimaced wryly. "Crazy preacher hopped up on the First Evil." He said, pushing the door further open and ushering the werewolf into the elegant foyer.

"I meant the door," Oz told him. "Willow told me about Caleb. Ouch." He commiserated, looking around at his surroundings with interest.

"Post-patrol argument." Xander said ruefully, putting his toolbox away below the wall mounted axes in the cupboard under the sweeping staircase. He turned back to the other man to catch him gazing up at the shimmering chandelier that hung from the rococo ceiling. "We found it in the Vaults." He told him. "Got it restored and rewired. Giles thinks it used to hang in the Paris Opera House." Xander shrugged noncommittally.

Oz nodded sagely. "Cool."

They stood in companionable silence in the cool of the spacious entrance room and Xander found himself once again marvelling at how quiet the building was when two thirds of its occupants were at school. Glancing at Oz, he found the small werewolf staring at him quizzically.

"So... Meeting?" Oz reminded him

Xander glanced at his watch and realised that he wouldn't even have time to change. Pressing a discrete knob in the wainscoting, he watched to see how Oz would react when the elevator arrived. His former classmate didn't disappoint, merely stepping into the small space with the barest suspicion of a smile and a brief twitch of one eyebrow. Grinning, Xander joined him.

**l**

At least they weren't the last to arrive Oz comforted himself, appreciating Xander's solidarity in walking with him to the two empty spaces on the other side of the wide conference table, leaving the space next to the one person Oz didn't know empty. Nodding at Buffy and Giles' greetings, he smiled back at Willow as he sat down opposite the young military officer. Looking at his youthful face, Oz suddenly felt old for the first time in his life. Glancing around the table, he wondered who else they were waiting for.

Glancing at his watch, Giles cleared his throat. "May I suggest we get started? It appears that Dr Wilson is running more than a little late."

"Before we do," Jon said, pulling the folder out from underneath the table. "I need you all to sign one of these." He told them, passing them each a stapled sheave of papers. "Captain Jon O'Neil." He introduced himself, keeping his hand held out for the pink-haired man to shake after he had taken his form.

"Daniel Osbourne." Oz told him, sniffing deeply. The Captain smelt of cold starry nights and yeasty beer with, Oz sneezed, a strangely chemical undertone.

"Gesundheit." Jon told him, sitting back down

Buffy frowned as she leafed through the document in front of her. "What is it?" She asked.

"Standard non-disclosure agreement." Jon told them. "Jack really should have made you sign them after LA."

"Why didn't he?" Giles asked as he turned the page and continued reading.

Clueless, Jon shrugged. "Lost the paperwork?" He suggested.

Wondering who Jack was, why the American military were here, and just what had happened in LA, Oz signed the agreement and pushed it across the table to the Captain. He collected the documents from the others as the door opened and a tall woman in her mid-twenties with corkscrew curls of bright red hair plumped into the empty seat with a minty sigh.

"Sorry I'm late everyone." She apologised, digging in her large bag. "There was a twelve car pile-up on the M25 and A&E was packed." She explained as she pulled a notebook and pen out, putting the bag on the floor.

Scenting the traces of blood that still clung to her, Oz fingered the mala bracelet on his wrist unconsciously, feeling the wolf stirring uneasily as she carefully aligned notebook and pen before picking up the agreement in front of her and asking what it was.

"Non-disclosure agreement." He told her as he lulled the beast within back to sleep.

She flashed him a wide grin of thanks. "I'm Jool." She said, raking her curls away from her face with her fingers.

"Oz."

Jon watched the kid's fingers slid from his bracelet and made a mental note to call him Daniel when he really wanted to bug him. The pang he felt as he remembered another Daniel made his voice harsher than he'd have liked when he introduced himself and he coughed.

"Well as long as we're being formal, I'm technically a Lady." Jool said with a slight smile as she turned the page. "Congratulations by the way Lord Giles."

Giles stuttered a thank you and introduced Xander, Willow and Buffy, polishing his glasses. Leaning over the table, Jool shook their hands enthusiastically.

"It's an honour to finally meet you." She told them, picking up the agreement once again. "I heard a lot about you until I stopped puberty."

"What happened then?" Willow asked, curious.

"My watcher kicked me out." Jool said absently, signing the agreement. Catching the Captain's look of horror as she passed it back to him, she laughed, her yellow eyes sparkling. "The trust fund he set up for me more than paid for a flat and my education." She reassured him.

"Giles, how come you never set me up a trust fund?" Buffy asked, looking imploringly at her watcher.

In the act of handing the Captain four glossy brochures, Giles didn't hesitate. "Because you would spend it on shoes." As Jon flicked through the first brochure, frowning quizzically at a one-bedroom apartment in down town Colorado Springs, the head of the Watchers Council explained. "We've managed to acquire four properties in Colorado Springs for you stay in until Faith is found."

Giving the apartment to Dr Wilson, Jon flipped open the next brochure and caught his breath at the familiar sight of his old house. Slapping it shut, he shunted the brochure to Osbourne and picked up the third more cautiously.

"Colorado Springs?" Jool asked, glancing disinterestedly over the flat details. "I thought we were going to be staying on a military base?" She slid the flat over to Oz and waited for the next brochure.

"Signed up to travel." Oz reminded them, raising an eyebrow at the mention of a basement in the brochure the Captain had passed him.

Passing on a two-storey townhouse, Jon flicked through the details of a two-bedroom house in the outskirts of the suburbs as he briefed them on the early history of the Stargate program.

"Aliens..." Jool breathed as he finished, her eyes gleaming at the thought.

Noticing that she was still waiting for him to pass the last brochure to her, Jon glanced down. "I'm keeping this one." He told her.

She shrugged, smiling ruefully. "I can't drive anyway." She said as Osbourne passed two brochures back to her. "Londoner."

Jon felt like banging his head on the table. "I'll let General O'Neill know that you'll need accommodation on the base until you get your licence." He dreaded making the call. "You'll be contracted to the United State Air Force as Civilian Specialists." He told them, passing out the contracts. Holding on to the third, he asked Lord Giles when the fourth member of his team would be arriving.

"We're, ah, having a little difficulty deciding who would be best to send." He said, smiling smoothly.

"Giles is being tight." Buffy told Jon.

"General O'Neill?" Oz questioned, signing his contract and passing it back.

Captain O'Neil frowned at him. "We're not related." He said.

"Aren't you a little young to be in command?" Dr Wilson asked and promptly looked horrified.

"Aren't you a little old to be a slayer?" Jon shot back, stung, and then felt guilty when she flushed.

"General O'Neill, two 'l's', has put Captain O'Neil, one 'l', in command of SG-13." Buffy said firmly and Jon wondered when Jack had spoken to her. "The oldest slayer activated after Sunnydale is forty eight." She informed him. "Deirdre would kick you to Colorado and back if you dared to suggest she's old."

**l**

"What's that?" Vala's magpie-like tendencies rose to the fore as she spotted the unusual object.

"What?" Cam asked before he saw what she was holding. "Nothing, put it back."

Vala eyed the object in her hand, her head tilted to one side. "It's obviously _something_ or you wouldn't have displayed it so prominently." She pointed out.

"I _said_, leave it alone." Cam ground out, grabbing the fragment of pottery from her and placing it carefully back on his shelf. "Go bug Jackson."

"Can't!" Vala told him, perching on the edge of his desk and looking over his shoulder at his half-finished report. "He's arguing on the phone about the...early evolution of the proto-celtic language. I think. Can't understand a word they're saying. Sort of reminds me of the time they hauled me in front of the village elders on that planet... what was called? Anyway, I was there on some business..."

**l**

Watching the door carefully as she bolted her dinner, Tiffany wondered what the others were doing with Captain O'Neil that was taking so long. As Xander appeared in the doorway she jumped to her feet, her heart beating quickly as she searched for his face.

"Jon! Do you want to go patrolling with me tonight?"

Tiffany's excited invitation made Jon smile despite his exhaustion. Sitting opposite the young girl, he heaped his plate with food, politely declining her offer. He was still aching from the bout with Buffy that morning and was now acutely conscious that he'd been awake for more than forty-eight hours.

"Sorry about that crack about your age." Dr Wilson apologised, pulling up a chair next to him. "I was just a little surprised to learn I'd be taking orders from someone younger than me." She explained, filling her plate.

"Osbourne doesn't seem to have a problem with it." Jon pointed out, glancing at the man calmly eating his dinner further down the table.

The red-head snorted, shoving her hair back as she swallowed a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "Are you even old enough to drink?" Jool asked and cursed herself for putting her foot in it again.

"I'm eighteen." Jon lied, shaking his head as he cut up his steak.

Dr Wilson turned her head, looking steadily at him. "That's legal in the UK." She pointed out and Jon grinned as he felt his exhaustion fall away.

**l**

Looking around the commissary, Cam spotted Sam and Jackson finishing their dinner at a table with Vala. Weaving his way through the tables, he joined them, aware that he'd been more than a little anti-social lately.

"...Designated SG-13!" Vala was saying as he sat down and he wondered when they had become common knowledge.

"And," She confided. "They're being funded by the IOA."

"Where do you get this crap?" Jackson asked harshly.

Cam smiled at the crest-fallen Vala. "I didn't know the IOA was bank-rolling the operation." He said.

"You mean it's _true_?" Sam asked as Vala preened, licking her spoon provocatively and Jackson gaped at him.

Tucking into his mac-n-cheese, Cam nodded. "They're arriving in under a week now." He said casually. Looking at their expectant faces he sighed, putting down his fork and telling them everything that he knew about the SGC's newest team, starting with the quarters that they'd been asked to prepare for one of the team.

**l**

Anxiously certain that she could hear whispering, Tiffany knocked on the door again, shifting from foot to foot as she waited impatiently. The door jerked sharply half-open and Tiffany caught her breath at the sight of Captain O'Neil's chiselled bare chest.

"Tiffany." He greeted her. Tiffany blinked at the sheet he held clutched around his waist, spellbound. "What's up?" He asked huskily.

Tiffany swallowed carefully before she spoke. "Breakfast finishes in ten minutes." She told him breathlessly. "Do you want me to save you some toast?"

He shook his head, telling her not to bother. "I'll grab something from the kitchen."

"Okay." Tiffany said slowly. "I'll see you later, right?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah, sure, you betcha, kid." Jon grinned, ruffling her hair before he closed the door.

Turning to lean against the closed door, the grin wiped from his face, Jon caught sight of a nipple as Jool pulled her bra straps up. Resting his head back against his door with a thud, Jon silently cursed his teenage hormones and the impulse that had sent him out drinking with Jool and the others last night. What had he done?

**l**

Cam stood waiting at the base of the ramp, his hands clasped behind his back as he stared steadily at the rippling surface of an open wormhole. One of the blast door whined as it slid back and Vala and Sam slipped into the room to stand at his shoulder. The water rippled as Teal'c stepped through.

"Six more worlds have fallen to the Ori." He announced, striding down the ramp towards them. "Two of them were Jaffa strongholds. They attempted to resist but were overwhelmed in a matter of hours." Looking at Vala, Teal'c stepped closer to her. "According to those who led the battle, the enemy is led by a young woman of extraordinary powers." He informed her.

Concerned, Cam glanced at Vala to see how she was taking the news. She seemed shaken but resigned.

"Any more stories about Faith?" He asked Teal'c.

"No." Teal'c told him regretfully. "You have had no further word of her?"

Cam shook his head. "I told you we traced her to a merchant planet." He reminded the Jaffa. "Since then, nothing."

"It's like she just dropped off the planet." Vala said and then bit her lip uncertainly when she realised what she'd said, her eyes flashing to Cam's face.

There was an awkward pause when everyone tried to think of something to say and then Teal'c turned and strode towards the blast door.

"Six planets in eight days and they don't even have their full team in the field yet." Mitchell said grimly as they left the Gateroom.

"Why haven't they made a move against Earth?" Sam wondered.

"In all probability the Ancient device in Antarctica is giving them pause." Teal'c suggested as they swept around a corner, Vala trailing behind them awkwardly.

"At least until the rest of their battle fleet gets here." Cam said.

"I got it!"

Jackson's shout came from behind them and Cam caught Sam's puzzled gaze as they turned around to see him run around the corner, clutching a book with one hand.

"Got it!" He called breathlessly, stopping in front of them. "I-I made the connection!" He grinned, glancing at the book he held. "Sir Gawain to Gwalchmei. Culwhch and Olwen. Verus Gen Bree." He told them triumphantly.

"And you say _I'm_ hard to understand." Sam complained to Cam.

"Oh? Oh!" Jackson exclaimed, realising that they didn't have a clue what he was talking about. "It's-it's Vagonbrei." He explained. "One of the planets that Arthur and his knights went to in their quest for the Holy Grail. I got the 'Gate address!"

Suddenly very interested, they all stepped forward.

"How soon can you get a briefing together?" Mitchell asked him, his arms folded.

"Uh..." Daniel juggled the book awkwardly as he glanced at his watch. He frowned, pushing up his glasses. "An hour?"

"Do you want a hand?" Vala asked and Daniel glanced at her in surprise.

"Do you mean it?" He asked warily.

She shrugged, pushing away from the wall. "I've got nothing better to do." She said, following him back the way he'd run. "Might as well make myself useful."

"One hour!" Cam shouted after them as they turned the corner. "So!" He said, turning to Sam and Teal'c. "Vagonbrei?"

"It would appear so."

**l**

**As the final days of the final years of this millennium,**

**Draw to a close on the new world's old mouth, **

**Shrouded by darkness, He shall rule for ten-score years and more.**

**Dividing, the slayer moves quickly, chased by darkness to her sister's bosom.**

**Like and not, faith struggles to overcome, **

**But as innocent blood is spilled, though innocent the error,**

**Her fate is cast. For unless no doors are kept closed to her He shall devour her,**

**With honeyed kindnesses and she will become the Dark One, reigning in his shadow.**

**Her star is shackled to his as she casts down the Angelic Demon,**

**If she shall prevail against the Slayer, then all is lost.**

**Then the Light will fail and the nameless be loosed to stalk the nightmares.**


	5. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200

**A/N:**

Two of my oldest friends are getting married next month and I'm being bridesmaid for both of them! Consequently, there may not be a chapter next month. I'll update as soon as possible though.

**Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200... or What Faith Did**

It was late afternoon on Jebanna and the traders were just beginning to pack up their stalls when Malina stumbled through the cold waters of the Chappa'ai, clutching the bundle of her possessions close to her chest. Staggering, she wheeled around to stare at the open portal.

"Please, please, please..." She whispered under her breath.

Seconds passed as she waited anxiously before the water rippled and Faith stepped through, stuffing the zat'nik'tel into the pocket of her breeches. Dropping her pack, Malina ran to her, wrapping her arms around the older woman and squeezing her tightly as she struggled not to burst into tears.

Her arms trapped at her sides, Faith gritted her teeth and endured the hug. Mallie clearly needed it. Clearing her throat awkwardly as Mallie let her go, Faith scooped up the other girl's pack and slung it over her shoulder, striding to the edge of the Stargate platform and tripping lightly down the stairs.

"Where are we?" She asked, not bothering to look over her shoulder and check to see if Mallie was following her.

Struggling to follow Faith in the press of last-minute bargain shoppers, Malina kept her eyes fixed on her pack, bobbing on Faith's shoulder. "Jebanna." She called and Faith looked back, stopping so Malina could catch up with her. "It is a merchant planet." Malina said as she drew abreast of the older slayer and they fell into step, the crowd parting before them with uneasy glances.

They made an incongruous pair as they strode through the bustling market. Malina's plain homespun gown was almost as out of context in the richly dressed crowd as Faith's khaki combats, black t-shirt and Doc Martins.

"I see that." Faith said, her gaze lingering on a stall of brightly coloured crystals as a customer held a deep blue one up to the setting sun, turning it in his hand so that it glinted brightly. "I'm starving, how much money we got?" She asked as her stomach rumbled loudly.

Horror-stricken, Malina stopped dead, her eyes wide. Faith stopped walking and turned to look at her, a sinking feeling in the pit of her empty stomach.

"I-I forgot-" The younger girl faltered, biting her lip as hot tears stung her eyes.

Panicked by the tears in Mallie's eyes, Faith looked wildly around the closing market for inspiration. "Don't panic." She said, quickly opening Mallie's large drawstring pack and handing it back to her. "Hold this, _there_," She instructed, holding Mallie's wrist at her waist, the bag open at the girls side. "And act like you want to buy something."

"Why?" Malina asked, following Faith as she made a beeline for a farmers stall. "What are you going to do? Faith?"

Faith ambled up to the vegetable stand and picked up what looked like a cross between a turnip and Cousin It, sniffing it curiously. Weirdly, it smelt like an overripe banana.

"Freshly picked this morning." The farmer said, heaving a sack of potatoes onto his cart and coming over. "Only two grams of naquada for three."

Smiling politely, Faith put the, whatever the hell it was, back. "No, thanks." She said and bumped the table with her hip as she turned to go.

Malina jumped back as the bottom row of apples next to her tumbled to the ground, one landing on her foot. Apologising to the farmer, she hurried after Faith as the dark-haired woman approached a butcher's cart. Spotting a basket waiting to be loaded, Faith plunged her hands in and grabbed two fistfuls of smoked sausages, asking what they were. Blushing profusely as the heavy-set Butcher glared at them, Malina told her.

Putting a handful back, Faith sniffed one. "Weird." She said, her other arm brushing against Malina's.

Managing to drag her away, Malina wondered what kind of world didn't have smoked sausages. Opening her mouth to ask, she stopped when Faith suddenly darted off in a different direction, hurrying after her instead.

"Have I ever shown you my party trick?" Faith asked, grabbing some rolls from a display and winking at the woman serving a customer.

Not certain she wanted to see it, Malina shook her head. "No..."

Throwing the rolls into the air with a grin, Faith began to juggle, adding more and more rolls from the display until the air around her was thick with bread and her arms flashed everywhere, keeping the rolls in the air. She slowed as the baker and her customer broke off their haggling to stare open-mouthed, gradually returning the rolls to the table.

A spontaneous crowd had gathered to watch and they broke into applause as Faith finished, many of them coming forward to inspect the baker's goods more closely. Grinning self-consciously, Faith steered Malina away.

"Just act natural." Faith said out of the corner of her mouth.

"Why?" Malina asked as a shout came from behind them and Faith quickly spun around.

Deftly snatching a cake from the air, Faith grinned gratefully at the besieged baker. Tossing the cake to Malina, she instructed the girl to put it in the bag. Conscious of her empty stomach's protests, Malina went to put to the cake away and froze, her eyes widening at the sight of the apples, bread and sausages nestling up to her belongings.

"How? But, but... when? _How_?" She stammered incoherently and Faith laughed, grabbing her arm and steering her over to some empty crates.

**l**

Licking the sausage grease from her fingers, Malina checked the contents of her bag, frowning.

"Are any apples left?" The girl asked, thirsty.

Faith bit deeply into the last apple and shook her head. "No." She mumbled around a mouthful of apple and swallowed.

Mallie sighed gustily and propped her jaw on her hand, looking at Faith. "So what do we do now?" The younger girl asked.

Discarding the apple core and rising gracefully from her perch on an empty crate, Faith stretched, catlike, and caught sight of a stall further down the market path. Her eyes lingering covetously on a pair of leather pants, she wondered if she should push her luck. Fuck it! She decided as Malina's eyes followed her own and the younger girl leapt to her feet with a cry of surprise.

"Aunt Vanna!"

"Who?" Faith asked the empty air and trailed after Mallie as she rushed over to the stall.

Her gaze fixed on the grey-haired woman busily packing kirtles away, Malina leant over a display of leather breeches and whistled sharply, a cheery trill. The woman leapt to her feet with a gasp, one hand flying to her brown bodice to rest over her heart as she span to stare blankly at Malina. Recognition dawned in her eyes and spread across her face in a motherly smile.

"By the Moons, _Malina_!" Vanna exclaimed and pulled Malina into a rough embrace across the table. Smoothing the child's fine hair away from her face she looked into her troubled eyes and wondered what was wrong. "What are you doing on Jebanna, it must be the middle of the night back home!"

"I am not going back to Terluna." Malina declared stubbornly, pulling away and folding her arms, a mulish light in her eyes. "And I am _not_ going to marry Praemas."

Vanna frowned absently at the dark-haired woman in green breeches who had wandered up behind Malina, a bag she recognised as Malina's slung over her shoulder until Malina's words had fully sunk into her mind. "Who is Praemas?" She asked, confused.

"Her Betrothed." The other woman said, her lips twisting wryly.

Noticing Vanna's questioning glance at Faith, Malina rushed to introduce the two. "This is Faith, Aunt Vanna." Turning to Faith, she elaborated. "Vanna was my mother's best friend."

Faith nodded, smiling politely at the iron-haired woman. The older woman eyed her critically for a minute before transferring her attention back to Malina.

"Betrothed?" She asked before throwing her hands up at the arrival of a customer. "Oh, we cannot talk here... Ulgrig!"

A bundle of rags on a chair stirred and Faith realised that it was a grizzled old man as he stood to serve the customer. Trailing awkwardly behind Vanna and Mallie as Vanna grilled the young girl for information, Faith followed them to a ring platform set in the dirt. As the rings shot up around them, Faith wondered if it was a good idea to blindly put their trust in Vanna. Shaking off the bad feeling she got in the pit of her stomach as the rings lowered to reveal a small gold-panelled room, Faith followed Vanna through twisting corridors to a small kitchen area with a four-person table set for two, a suddenly silent Mallie by her side. Chattering inconsequentially about the rumours of Chulak's devastation, Vanna ushered the girls to the table and bustled off to rummage busily in her cupboards.

"You do not have to feed us, Aunt Vanna." Malina said, twisting in her seat to look at the woman assembling two large meals.

"Oh, it is no trouble." Vanna assured her, collecting two glasses from a cupboard and crossing to a large jug. "Now, tell me all about this Praemas of yours." She continued, her back to Malina and Faith as she poured their drinks. "Where is he from?"

"Vere Una," Mallina told her, rolling her eyes as Vanna turned around. "But he is not mine!"

Vanna chuckled as she placed a glass of water each in front of them and turned back to collect their meals. Still thirsty from the salty sausages, Malina greedily gulped the clear liquid down, putting the glass down with a thunk when she was finished. Turning back to the girls, Vanna's eyes widened as she caught sight of the empty glass and Malina asked for more as Faith sipped her water.

Handing them their meals, Vanna fetched the water jug and refilled Malina's glass, asking the girl what their plans were. Her eyes glazing, Malina slumped over the table, her face landing in her food and one hand knocking over her water. The fluid spread out over the table, searching for a way to escape its confines.

"What did you do to Mallie?" Faith demanded to know, staring at the unconscious girl. The words tumbled thickly out of her mouth, jumbling up into one another like a pile up on the freeway. "An' me." She added as an afterthought, as the room span round her.

Water dripped slowly from the table to the floor as she waited for a reply. Drip, drip, dri-

**l**

Faith fought her way up and into consciousness, yanking her arms free from tugging hands as her eyes snapped open and she rolled away from whoever had been pulling her down the ship hallway. Caught off-balance by the unexpected move, Ulgrig staggered back, his arms flying out as he struggled to stay on his feet. He blinked and she was standing.

Ulgrig barely had time to register the right hook headed his way before pain exploded in his cheekbone and he staggered further back, stumbling to the floor, his hand clutched to his face. He heard the familiar sound of a zat'nik'tel discharging moments before pins and needles shot through his body and he fell into the welcome relief of unconsciousness.

Faith stared down the unfamiliar gold passageway and came very close to something like panic, running her hands through her long hair as she stared, wide-eyed. Okay...step one, find Mallie.

This was good, Faith thought, picking a direction at random. She had a goal. Jogging down the hallway, she slowed to poke her head into an open doorway. Some sort of storeroom, filled with crated goods. Faith hurried on.

Turning left at a junction, she found the ring room and what looked like some kinda... Faith guessed it was the engine room. It hummed with power anyway. Moving on, she turned right and started to come across crew accommodation. Rushing to the end of that corridor, she opened the last door and checked at the sight of Mallie, lying unconscious, tucked under the coverlet of an opulent bed.

Running to her side, Faith threw back the covers and slid her arms underneath Mallie's recumbent form. Step two, she thought grimly, standing. Get the fuck outta Dodge. Turning to leave, she froze when she caught sight of Vanna standing in the doorway. Her arms full of the unconscious Mallie, Faith could do nothing about the zat Vanna held except shrug fatalistically and continue walking.

"We're leaving." She told Vanna firmly.

"I think not." Vanna replied politely and shot Faith.

Faith's arms went completely numb and she staggered as her legs momentarily buckled underneath her but she righted herself quickly, clutching Mallie with nerveless fingers. Vanna's eyes widened as Faith remained upright and then narrowed as she continued walking. Firing again, she smiled with satisfaction as Faith fell to her knees and dropped Mallie. Gasping with the effort of remaining conscious as pins and needles stabbed into her nerves, Faith tipped her head back to look Vanna in the eyes as the woman warily approached her.

"Screw you guys," Faith panted. "I'm going home!"

Stopping so that Malina's prone form lay between them, Vanna cocked her head, wondering how the girl was still alive, let alone conscious. Would a third shot kill her? The determined light in the woman struggling to rise from the floor's eyes decided Vanna. Raising her arm sharply, she fired.

**l**

She was still thirsty, Malina thought muzzily, licking her dry and chapped lips. Her mouth felt parched and tasted fustily of cabbage. Grimacing at the flavour, Malina opened her eyes and pushed herself into a sitting position to gaze in confusion at the large gold-panelled bedroom. What had happened? Where was Faith?

"About time you woke up." The dusty voice came from a dingy corner and Malina was surprised to see Ulgrig sitting there with... was that a steak he held to his face?

"What happened?" Malina's voice was harsh and cracked, her throat dry. "Where is Faith?"

Removing the meat to reveal a spectacular black eye, Ulgrig spat. "If you mean that hellcat," he said bitterly, rising to his feet. "Your Aunt is with her now, trying to make her see sense."

Malina frowned. "See sense about what?" She asked as Ulgrig shuffled to the door. What was happening? "Uncle Ulgrig?"

The grizzled man paused in the open doorway, the harsh lines of his face unusually soft as he gazed at the young woman sitting on the bed. "Women's business," he grunted. "I'll fetch your Aunt."

Malina stared open-mouthed as the door slid shut behind him. Scrambling to the edge of the large bed, she staggered over to the door, staggering as her head spun fuzzily. Pressing the green crystal on the pad next to the door as Ulgrig had done, she frowned when the door stayed obstinately shut.

"Uncle Ulgrig?" Malina shouted. "Aunt Vanna? Faith!"

Kicking the metal door resentfully, the confused girl collapsed on the soft bed, staring at the shadowed ceiling.

**l**

This time it was harder. Her limbs were sluggish and her fingers and toes were numb. Her head pounded dully and the disgusting taste in her mouth that she had noticed earlier was a thousand times worse. Grimacing, Faith propped herself up on her elbows and opened her eyes, squinting as the light caused her headache to sharpen in intensity. A chain clinked by her side and she stared uncomprehendingly at the long chain solidly bolted to a wall until she realised that it was fastened to her wrist. Panicking, she grabbed the chain, pulling it taut and then yanking hard. The cot she sat on shifted forward six inches. Scrambling off the bed, Faith tried again, twisting this way and that as she struggled to free herself. A mirthless chuckle from behind her stilled her frantic motion and Faith stood immobile for a moment before turning to face Vanna.

"What do you want?" She asked, rudely and to the point.

Unaccustomed to such plain speaking, Vanna blinked for a few seconds before mentally rearranging herself and replying.

"From you? Nothing." The older woman told Faith dismissively as her husband entered, the purple bruising on his face livid against his pale skin.

Whispering, he informed his wife that Mallie had woken up. Grinning at the news, Faith stretched out on her cot as the couple hurried from the room without another word to her. They might've taken the zat, but they'd missed her knife in its calf sheath completely. Pulling the packet of cigarettes from her pocket, she eyed the gas level in her lighter critically, weighing it against the three-quarters full pack. She'd run out of cigarettes long before she ran out of gas, she decided, lighting up with a small puff of smoke and relaxing completely as nicotine coursed through her system. Now, if only she had something to get rid of that taste in her mouth...

**l**

Malina was just drifting back off to sleep when the sound of the door sliding open sent her scrambling upright. Aunt Vanna entered, calmly carrying a tray of food and drink as though Malina hadn't been locked in a room onboard her ship with no way of contacting Faith and no idea of what had happened to her.

As Malina struggled to think a way to express her turbulent thoughts, Vanna set the tray down on a small wooden table beside the bed and tucked the bedcovers around the young girl's waist. Malina's mouth opened a couple of times as the girl started to say something and stopped herself each time. Finally, as Vanna placed the tray of steaming broth on her lap, Malina looked the older woman squarely in the eye and opened her mouth.

"Where is Faith?" She asked.

Busying herself with a pitcher of water and a glass, Vanna kept her face in profile as she replied. "Locked in a room on the other side of the ship." Handing the full glass to Malina, she pulled up a chair to the side of the bed as Malina placed the glass of water on the table with a dubious look.

"How did I get here?" Malina asked when Vanna had sat down.

Looking down at her hand in her lap, Vanna picked awkwardly at a fingernail. "I drugged you." She admitted.

Malina stared at the woman she considered an aunt, aghast. "Why?"

"You are so like your mother." Vanna sighed. "'I will not marry Makkam', she said to me when her mother told her of the match." The older woman reminisced. "She tried to run away too and look how happy they were, 'til the day she died."

Malina, who had her own childhood memories to tell her differently, stayed silent as the other woman continued speaking, telling Malina of her own pre-wedding nerves and how happy she was now. Clearly, she didn't understand.

"But Praemas is a Prior of the Ori." Malina explained and her Aunt fell silent.

Wrapped in her thoughts, Aunt Vanna frowned and then her brow cleared. "It seems to me," she said slowly. "That your father has contracted an excellent husband for you." As Malina gaped in horror, Vanna continued. "I understand that these Priors are the holy men of the Ori; that they are men of immense power, greatly revered by the followers of Origin.

"You are a girl with great power. Such power can be easily twisted by the unscrupulous." Vanna deliberately made no mention of Faith. "But, wedded to a Prior, you can have no fears that this will happen. It is a great honour to you and Terluna that he has chosen you."

"I will not marry Praemas!" Malina shouted.

Vanna sighed. "So like your mother."

**l**

Ulgrig had just entered the hyperspace co-ordinates into the ships console when his wife of almost twenty-five years stamped onto the bridge. Ulgrig suppressed a wince as she threw herself into the seat next to him and started angrily jabbing buttons.

"Ungrateful, headstrong, foolish girl!" Vanna raged and Ulgrig watched as she wiped ten minutes of painstaking work from the ships memory. "Do you know what her father has managed to do for her?"

"No dear."

"Somehow contract an _incandescent_ match for the girl!" Vanna exclaimed. "The Gods only know how." She added after a moment's reflection.

Ulgrig frowned. "Who to?" He asked. The only suitor Malina had had when they had left Terluna was that idiot Gunt.

Vanna told him.

**l**

It was difficult to keep track of time, but a silent Vanna brought her regular meals as Ulgrig covered her with a zat from the safety of the hallway and Faith was able to make a rough guess based on that, scratching a line into the wall of her cell with her knife after every third meal. It became a kind of ritual, along with the single cigarette she allowed herself every, she guessed it was morning.

That first day Faith spent in trying to pick the manacle lock with her knife and then in trying to pry off any likely looking piece of trim within reach. That day, Vanna returned the Ori dress to her possession. Sick of the sight of it, Faith stuffed it under her bed. The second day she moved on to the chain, inspecting it for any weaknesses. When she found none she started tugging at the wall bolt in a panic that was only broken when Vanna arrived with dinner. The next day she listlessly scraped at the wall around the bolt with her knife, desperately trying to keep her thoughts away from Earth, Cam, B, D, the Xanman, Red, Cam... She was almost glad when it was time to carve a new line into the wall, curl up on her cot and wait for sleep.

On the fourth day, everything started to change. Faith was smoking a cigarette after a cold breakfast of burned and lumpy porridge when the ship shuddered beneath her feet, the engine note changing dramatically, and they dropped out of hyperspace to float above a serenely blue planet.

Standing as close to the small window as she could reach, Faith desperately strained to see how many moons there were, her cigarette burning unheeded in her hand. Only the heat as it burned up to the butt called her back to her senses, and she renewed her scrapings with vigour, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at the window. As lunch, unappetising though it usually was, failed to arrive and her stomach complained, Faith tried to distract herself by pacing backwards and forwards against the confines of her chain. Finally, she stopped and threw her head back.

"Mallie?" She bellowed and listened hard. Distantly hearing her name shouted, she smiled grimly and shouted back. "You ok?"

"I think so... you?" Mallie replied.

"Five-by-five!" Faith yelled back. "Can you get out?"

"No!" Malina shook her head even though Faith couldn't see her, eyeing the control panel by the door ruefully. Three times she had tried to get past it and three times wild energy had climbed up her arm from the panel, making her gasp and her arm tingle as though she had been shot by a zat'nik'tel. The third time it had thrown her across the room and she lain unconscious until Vanna brought her breakfast. After that, Malina had decided to stop trying before she did herself some lasting damage.

"Have they fed you yet?" Malina shouted, settling down in a crouch against the wall and preparing herself for a lengthy conversation.

"No." Came the distant reply.

Malina frowned. "Do you think they're on that planet?" She shouted.

"Probably!"

"How many moons can you see?"

**l**

Deep underground on a deserted and forgotten planet a secret society of Goa'uld were holding a meeting. Meetings were routine events for the Tok'ra and so Anise and Freya can be forgiven for not paying attention as Gershaw moved to the next item in the agenda. In fact, it wasn't until a large photograph was passed to them that they sat up and paid attention.

"...imperative that we do not make contact. Instead we have been asked to contact the SGC at once and inform them of her location."

"Is she dangerous?" Freya asked before Anise could stop her.

Gershaw frowned at them. "They haven't specified."

Still wondering why Faith was wandering the galaxy, Freya sulked as Anise kept silent and Gershaw moved on. Meanwhile, Anise was wondering just what the news might mean for her research, a small smile on their face.

**l**

Faith was halfway through telling Mallie about the time she and B had taken down a pack of Snargil demons with just Mr Pointy and a wooden coffee stirrer (which had involved a long and complicated shouted explanation of Starbucks and coffee) when the door slid open and Vanna stormed into the room, zat in hand. Breaking off mid-sentence, Faith stared at the woman as she rapidly pressed the trigger and three bolts of energy flew towards her. She just had time to recover from the pins and needles of the first shot before the second and third hit her and she knew no more.

Panicked when Faith stopped shouting, Malina bellowed her name several times. What had happened? Had Vanna come back? Abruptly, Malina stopped shouting. Running to the door, she pressed her ear to the floor just in front of it. There! Barely perceptible under the noise of the engines was the sound of Vanna's footsteps hurrying towards her.

Malina threw herself onto the bed and scrambled under the covers, forcing her body to relax as Vanna's footsteps drew closer. Slowing her breathing to deep regular breaths, Malina waited, her eyes lightly closed. The door hummed electronically as it slid back and Malina heard Vanna tiptoe up to the side of her bed.

"Malina?" Vanna whispered.

Carefully Malina remained still. Vanna's breathing was harsh and heavy above her and it was all Malina could do not to recoil from her hot breath.

"Malina?" Vanna whispered again and this time Malina allowed a tiny frown to crease her forehead before she sighed slightly and relaxed again.

Still Vanna hovered over her. Malina snuffled slightly, allowing her mouth to open a little and gave serious consideration to producing some drool. Finally, Vanna sighed gustily and left the room. As soon as the door had closed, Malina leapt out of bed, running to the door with bare feet to listen carefully, checking that Vanna was definitely going.

She had to get out of there, Malina thought wildly as the engines whined and the ship accelerated until the purple, white and blue lights streaked past the wide window again. She had to save Faith and then they had to get off the ship before it reached Terluna.

**l**

Someone had left a jug and a platter of bread and cheese on the wall. Faith blinked and realised that she was lying on the floor and so was her dinner. Groaning, she pulled herself upright, her back propped against her cot. The chain jangled as she rubbed her arms and legs, trying to force some feeling into them. Damn, she hated zats!

Pins and needles flooding her limbs, she reached for the platter in front of her, grabbing the bread and biting a huge chunk off. Pouring water into her glass, she drank deeply. The chain clinked as she set the glass down and Faith frowned. Gathering the loose chain up, she stood and heaved against the wall. Feeling the bolt move slightly she heard a tiny grating sound and pulled even harder, hauling back with all her strength.

After a while she had to admit that it wasn't gonna budge. Letting go of the chain, she bent and grabbed her knife from its sheath, snagging the bread as she stood. Feeling the blunt edge of the weapon as she walked to the wall, Faith frowned. All this scraping was wearing away the blade at a frightening rate. Still it was worth it for the chance of escaping before they reached Terluna.

**l**

Malina bit back a scream as pain tore up her arm and it flailed wildly, her heart rate speeding up in response. Gasping, she stepped back from the door panel yet again, biting her lip to prevent the threatening tears from falling. She _would_ escape before they arrived home. The galaxy took weeks to cross. Everyone knew that. She had plenty of time to make the damn door work!

Lashing out in frustration, she punched the open panel, her fist connecting several of the exposed contacts. Yelping as a minor shock stung her fingers, she shook her hand to dispel the feeling as the door slid open. Open-mouthed, her forgotten hand hanging in mid-air, Malina stared.

Was it really that easy? Snapping her mouth closed, Malina stuck her head out of the door at the same time as Vanna turned into the hallway. Apparently not. As Vanna's eyes widened, Malina pulled her head back into the room. Would punching the panel again lock the door? Would that do any good? She tried it anyway and wasn't surprised when it failed, just sending a numbing wave through her arm instead.

She staggered back from it as a furious Vanna reached the room, zat'nik'tel in hand, and paused slightly before firing once. Malina's legs turned to jelly and she fell to the floor as pins and needles erupted all over her body.

The floor underneath her juddered as the view from her window changed into normal space. Rapidly decelerating, Malina watched as they flew past three moons before settling into orbit above Terluna.

**l**

"No!"

Malina's shout brought Faith to her feet, her gaze flying to the stars outside her porthole. She'd felt the ship drop out of hyperspace minutes before, scraping at the wall with renewed vigour. Now, hearing the desperation on the younger girl's voice, Faith yanked on her chain. The bolt grated and moved perhaps a millimetre. Encouraged, Faith pulled harder.

"Faith! Fai-"

The cut-off cry for help held Faith motionless for a moment before she abruptly sat down. Propping her feet against the wall, she grabbed hold of the chain and quickly straightened her knees, knocking the half-full jug of water over and soaking her grubby combats as she dragged the bolt halfway out of the wall.

Jumping to her feet, Faith dragged the drooping combats up her waist, realising for the first time just how much weight the restricted onboard diet of the past five days had stripped from her frame. Getting a good grip on the bolt with one hand, she braced herself against the wall with the other. Wrenching at the bolt, she felt it grind against the wall as it worked its way free.

Getting a good look at the three-inch twin bolts, Faith recognised a weapon when she saw one. Coiling the chain into loops, Faith attached it to a belt loop of her combats and didn't know why she was surprised when the weight dragged the pants down to her ankles.

Stepping out of them, she took off her t-shirt as well, aware that after almost a week of continuous use they, and she, must reek, and reached for the hated Ori dress. Feeding the chain through a sleeve, she slipped the dress over her head and fastened the chain around her waist like a belt, making sure that her arm had full manoeuvrability. Decently attired, she grabbed her knife and sauntered over to get a look at the door. Pressing the large green crystal Vanna used, she was pleasantly surprised when the door slid open, grinning as she snatched the dirty uniform from the floor and wandered out into the hallway.

**l**

The ship was empty. Well, except for the crates of stock in the storeroom. After searching the ship, Faith's feet had somehow carried her straight past the ring-room and into the storeroom. Gazing down at a soft pair of fragrant leather pants, Faith sighed. Screw it. The way she figured it, Vanna owed them. Grabbing a pack from another crate, Faith helped herself to a few more items while she was at it.

Jogging back to the ring-room, her new pack slung over her shoulder and the chain jingling with every step, Faith hoped that Mallie was okay. She'd better be.

**l**

Malina paced the confines of the small antechamber Vanna had locked her in with quick steps, her mind searching for a way out of her dilemma. The heavy bolts on the other side of the door grated open and Malina turned to watch as it creaked open. To her surprise, Ulgrig stood in the doorway, a closed zat'nik'tel held loosely in one hand.

"What do you want?" She asked as he shuffled inside her cell.

He shrugged, avoiding her eyes. "Your Aunt has gone to fetch your father and your Betrothed." He said tonelessly.

Malina squashed the panic that threatened to overwhelm her. "She is no Aunt of mine!" she snapped.

Ulgrig looked at her then, his eyes sad. "Am I no longer your Uncle?" He asked pathetically.

"I renounce this whole damn planet!" Malina stormed, ignoring Ulgrig's flinch. "No more am I a Daughter of the Moons!"

Ulgrig hushed her frantically, glancing over his shoulder. "The mayor waits to perform the ceremony." He explained. Swallowing, Malina checked, her eyes flying to the doorway behind him. Ulgrig softened further as he looked upon her stricken face.

"Uncle, I don't want to marry him." Malina said, childlike.

Ulgrig reached out a hand that trembled slightly to gently tuck a strand of Malina's hair behind her ear. "You look so much like your mother." He whispered, his pale eyes watery with tears. Quickly, he stuffed the zat'nik'tel into her hand. "Go!" He urged her.

Striding to the door, Malina paused on the threshold as Ulgrig softly called her name. Turning, she looked questioningly at the old man.

"Be happy." He told her, smiling tremulously.

Not trusting herself to speak around the lump in her throat, Malina nodded and left.

**l**

Making a mental note to thank Daniel for taking the time to teach her how to work rings, Faith punched the buttons that she hoped would take her to the planets surface and jumped into the centre of the platform. With a metallic hum the bands levitated up around her and when they vanished back down into the dirt that was suddenly underneath her feet Faith was in a small deserted olde worlde village.

Spinning to get a three-sixty view of the joint, Faith noticed Mallie running down the steps of an imposing stone temple.

"Mallie!" Faith called as she jogged over to the other slayer.

Mallie's head snapped round so quickly that she woulda gotten whiplash if she hadn't been a slayer. The younger girl ran to meet Faith, colliding with her so hard that Faith rocked on her feet as Mallie wrapped her arms around her and squeezed. Tightly.

"Okay." Faith croaked and Mallie released her, stepping back. "We gotta have words girl."

"Later?" Mallie suggested, her gaze fixed over Faith's shoulder.

Faith glanced behind her to see Vanna and Mallie's dad outside a two-storey timbered building, a small crowd of men around them as they talked rapidly to one another. From this distance, Faith couldn't make out what they were saying, although she strained to hear.

"Don't suppose you know how to fly a spaceship?" Faith asked, jerking a thumb back at the rings.

"No." Mallie shook her head. "You?"

"Nope." Faith told her cheerily. "So, Stargate?" She asked expectantly as a shout from behind her signalled that the group of natives had spotted them.

Mallie nodded and they ran.

**l**

"That's it!" Ackerman exclaimed, staggering over to a log and sitting down heavily. "I need a break."

"Again?" Cam asked incredulously.

"You had a break ten minutes ago." Jackson backed him up.

Teal'c ignored the bickering that sprang up between Colonel Mitchell, Doctor Ackerman and Daniel Jackson and began a minute examination of the small clearing. The dark trees stretched to meet a grey sky filled with dank leaves. An overpowering stench of death and despair hung like a pall over Vagonbrei, even here in the forests. Two bright bushes swayed in a nonexistent breeze, their green leaves a sharp contrast against their black background.

"Daniel Jackson!"

"Yes?" Daniel Jackson broke off mid-argument to ask.

Teal'c reached for his flashlight. "I believe I have found Morgan Le Fay's Cave."

**l**

Malina entered the address of a pleasant tropical planet she knew of and waited for the Chappa'ai to activate. With an ominous grating sound, the large metal circle jarred to a stop. Her eyes wide with disbelief, Malina turned to tell Faith what had happened. The dark-haired Slayer was huddled behind a convenient tree, firing the single zat'nik'tel they possessed at the group of men running down the lane towards them.

"Faith..." Malina started.

"Just dial!" Faith shouted as she squeezed shot after shot at their pursuers. "Anywhere's better than here."

Frantically Malina pushed the buttons that would take them off her planet for a second time. Please work, she silently begged as Faith fell back to stand next to her, still squeezing shot after shot into their pursuers. With a plume of rushing water, the Chappa'ai opened and Malina dived through first, Faith just behind her.

Standing together as the wormhole behind them shut off they stared at their new surroundings in horror.

"I l-l-l-lied." Faith told Malina, her jaw chattering unbearably.

An icy wasteland lay before them, a howling wind shifting loose crumbs of snow along the surface of yet more frozen snow. As they stood there shivering, fat flakes of even more snow began to appear in the air. It stung their cheeks and hands as the arctic wind drove it into them.

Spotting a mushroom-shaped clump of snow not too far away, Faith waded towards it, cursing the unwieldy Ori dress all the way. Wiping the snow from the top of the mushroom, Faith was rewarded with the welcome sight of a faintly glowing console.

Whooping, she punched the air and immediately regretted it as her sleeve slid down and frozen needles of snow assaulted her bare arm. Turning her attention back to the console in front of her, Faith forced her cramped blue fingers to move over it.

"What are you doing?" Malina asked as Faith pressed a button at random.

"Getting us out of here." Faith frowned as she pressed another button.

"But you do not know any addresses. " Malina pointed out reasonably. "Let me-"

"Uh-uh." Faith wagged a purple finger at Malina. "No more 'Gate dialling for you. You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place." She turned back to the DHD and depressed three more buttons. "Besides, how hard can it be?" She asked, stabbing at another symbol with her frozen finger.

"Very!" Malina had to shout to be heard over the rising wind. The snowflakes were coming thicker and faster now. Faith jabbed another button and Malina shuddered, desperately rubbing her arms to try to warm them as Faith deliberated over which button to press next.

"Faith, we are going to die here if you do not let me-" Malina stopped shouting as Faith finally picked a symbol and the Chappa'ai came to life. Oh, she had never been so glad to see the blue waters of an open Chappa'ai in all her life.

Side by side, the two women staggered through the 'Gate and out the other side into a balmy summer evening. Still shivering, they huddled together on the bottom step of the stone Stargate platform.

Finding that blowing on her blue fingers wasn't enough to warm them, Faith stuck her hands under her armpits. Malina copied her example and they sat in silent solidarity until their shivers had abated and the snow still clinging to them had melted.

"I vote we never go there again." Faith said finally.

While Malina didn't fully understand Faith's words, she agreed with the sentiment behind them. "Fuck yeah!"

Faith stared at her in shock. "Damn girl, you're pickin' up some bad habits hangin' with me. You sure you wanna stick around?"

"Where else am I to go?" Malina asked sadly. Suddenly she smiled mischievously. "Besides, I have an odd feeling that next to you is probably one of the safest places to be."

Faith snorted. "You got brain freeze or somethin'? If it weren't for me-"

"If it was not for you I would be wedded to a Prior. Or I would have died on Chulak."

Faith pulled her fingers out from under her arms and was relieved to see that they'd returned to their normal pink colour. Well, apart from the tip of the finger she'd used to dial. That was still a sickly white colour.

"Fine." She said, standing and dusting off the seat of her dress. "But the first planet we find with no Ori."

"No Priors." Malina chimed in, shouldering her pack and getting to her feet.

"No Orici." Faith swung her own pack over her shoulder and looked around. Smoke rose slowly into the air off in the distance and Faith fixed the direction in her mind.

"And no snow."

"And no snow." Faith agreed. "Then I'm reminding you of that offer."

"Very well." She would still turn it down, Malina thought. Going on the little Faith had said about Slayers, Malina doubted they led quiet lives. Hold on... Malina thought back to something Faith had said earlier.

"What is an Orici?"

Faith frowned as she set off in the direction of the smoke. "I haven't told you about Adria yet?" Malina shook her head, easily keeping up with Faith's quick pace. "Well, Adria's the Orici, which basically means that she's the bitch in charge of this invasion. She's an Ori in human form." Faith explained.

"I thought all the Ori were human."

"No, no, no." Faith said with a yawn. She slung an arm around Malina's shoulders, a move that downgraded their pace from rapid to a mere saunter. "See what happened is that millions of years ago there was this race of really advanced humans..."

**A/N:**

Now you've read, please review. Reviews make writers happy, but I bet you already knew. ;)


	6. Sweet Slumber’s Soft Embrace

**A/N:**

Okay, when I said there wouldn't be a chapter this month, I clearly lied. One wedding down, one more to go. On the plus side, I'm now only about one chapter behind schedule.

**Sweet Slumber's Soft Embrace**

Cam got off the elevator at level twenty-seven, taking the time to walk through the Control Room even though he was running late. "Any news?" He asked Walter as he jogged lightly down the stairs.

"No sign of her yesterday, sir." Walter told him, shaking his head.

Cam nodded. "The next update's still scheduled for tomorrow morning, yeah?"

Walter nodded. "Yes sir." He confirmed as Cam strode out of the Control Room and down to level twenty-eight.

The camera they'd left concealed in the Stargate clearing on Terluna was still filming. Every morning, StarGate Command dialled Terluna to upload the last twenty-four hours worth of footage and supply the camera with fresh batteries. General Landry had ordered that the watch be maintained until Faith was found or SG-13 arrived and decided otherwise. Walter and his team of technicians had volunteered to check the footage for any sign of Faith. So far, neither she nor the other girl, Mallie, had returned to Terluna.

Cam nodded at Vala as she passed him in the corridor, yelling back at Daniel to be careful. Jackson stood in the centre of the Gateroom blast doors, watching her walk away and Cam reminded him that it was time to go as he entered the Gateroom and accepted his P-90 from the waiting Airman. Looking back at the sputtering Jackson still standing in the doorway, Cam sighed impatiently and grabbed him, pulling the speechless archaeologist into the Gateroom so that the blast doors could close.

"You ready?" He asked as Jackson took a P-90 from the Airman. Jackson nodded and Cam turned to face the open Stargate. "Then let's go." He said, heading for the ramp.

**l**

Happily convinced that she had passed her psych evaluation, Vala went back to Daniel's office, remembering that she had been so caught up in studying for the test that she'd forgotten to have a snoop round Daniel's computer. Turning the machine on, Vala quickly typed in Daniel's password when it asked for it and opened his email account as soon as the desktop had loaded.

She tutted at the sight of his crowded inbox, stuffed with unread mail and gleefully began scrolling down the list, looking for something interesting. About halfway down the page, her eye was caught by an email entitled 'URGENT' from a Willow Rosenburg.

Just who was this Willow and what did she want with Daniel? Curious, she clicked on the email, quickly reading it. After she had finished she sat back in the chair, chewing her hair thoughtfully and read it through once more for good measure.

Vala only had the vaguest idea of what a prophecy was but apocalypse was a word she understood only too well. As a child, an apocalypse had been something that the Gods caused when they were angry. Then, when she'd grown up she'd become a host to one of those Gods and she had _caused _those apocalypses. Afterwards, she'd known that the devastation the Goa'uld wrought was nothing more than technology disguised as magic and she'd given no more thought to apocalypses. Until now.

Reaching for the notebook Daniel had given her to make notes in earlier, Vala grabbed a pen and copied down the prophecy. It certainly looked like Ancient to her, but there were many different dialects of Ancient and not even Daniel knew them all. Still, if it was Ancient then she was probably in the best place on the planet to be able to decipher it, Vala thought, eyeing Daniel's crammed shelves ruefully. From what she could gather this 'prophecy' foretold something to do with Faith and an apocalypse. Vala didn't think she wanted to experience something that the Tau'ri considered to be an apocalypse. She had a feeling it would be bad.

**l**

Eager to get back to the SGC, Cam headed back towards the house they'd temporarily set up base in earlier, shining his flashlight into every dark crevice on the way. The bright beam slid in through the window of the house and Cam thought he saw someone. Angling the light through the door as he came level with it, Cam saw Bernie sitting in a chair at the table, his arms folded.

"Ackerman, lets go." He told the man loudly and turned to go. A small part of his brain noticed that Ackerman still hadn't moved and he sighed impatiently, turning back and entering the house. "Yo Ackerman!" Cam shouted as he approached the man. He lightly slapped him on the shoulder twice. "C'mon, wake up."

He was already at the door when he heard Ackerman fall. Turning around, Cam shone the flashlight on Ackerman's pale body, as he lay sprawled on the floor. Dread settled like a mess of rattlers in his stomach. That couldn't be good.

**l**

"We're sending the medical supplies through now, Colonel." General Landry's voice crackled over the radio as Cam waited by the DHD.

"Roger that Sir." Cam acknowledged.

"Sure you don't want a little help? I can send another team in Hazmat." Landry offered.

"Until we know what we're dealing with, that would just be risking more lives." Cam told the General as the MALP rolled out of the Stargate. "We can handle it." He assured Landry.

"Understood." The General told him and Cam didn't hesitate before he brought up the topic on his mind.

"It looks like I'm going to miss the Terluna update, sir." He said and held his breath as he waited for General Landry's reply.

"We'll keep you posted." Landry promised. "Stargate Command out."

The Stargate shut down and Cam took control of the MALP, guiding it to the house they'd set up base in with practised ease. Grabbing one of the crates, Cam balanced it on his shoulder and opened the front door, striding into the front parlour.

"Compliments of Doctor Lam." He announced, setting the crate down on a table.

Cam read the contents out to everyone as he began to unpack it. Grimsby popped up beside him and snatched up the bottle of caffeine pills as soon as Cam had put it down, frantically shaking some into his palm and swallowing them dry. Watching him, Cam frowned.

"Go easy there, Grimsby!" He warned.

Grimsby glared at him. "How long you been awake for?" He asked.

"I dunno." Cam said, shrugging. He glanced at Sam. "What, twenty-four hours?" He asked and she nodded slightly, a glazed look in her eyes.

"Yeah, talk to me when you get to forty." Grimsby snapped and stalked off.

Cam and Teal'c watched him go as Sam frowned and leaned in closer.

"You've pulled all-nighters before, right?" She asked Cam quietly.

"Yeah, loads of them." He answered, wondering why she was asking.

"This feels worse, doesn't it?" Sam pressed.

"I too am more fatigued than I would have expected." Teal'c agreed.

"It has to be the infection." Sam said. "It doesn't just keep you from waking up, it makes you want to sleep in the first place."

Cam frowned and shook out some more caffeine pills. "Well, in that case..." He said and offered them to Teal'c.

Teal'c bowed his head. "I prefer to rely on my tretonin." He declined politely.

Sam accepted a couple of pills and Cam put the rest back. Teal'c raised an eyebrow and Sam held off from taking her pills uneasily. Sensing their gaze on him as he screwed the lid of the bottle back on, Cam looked up.

"What?" He asked.

"You're not taking any?" Sam questioned.

Cam shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. "Guess I got my second wind."

Sam frowned. "You're not tired?" She asked. "Reimer!"

The leader of SGC-Red looked wearily up from his laptop. Sam beckoned him over with a jerk of her head and he slowly got up and joined them, gratefully accepting the bottle of caffeine pills from Cam.

"Colonel Mitchell isn't tired." Sam told Reimer quietly.

Reimer looked sharply at Cam. "At all?" He queried.

Cam shrugged. "A little, I guess..." He said uncertainly, looking at his team for help. They stared worriedly back at him.

"And you didn't think to mention it sooner?" Reimer sighed impatiently. "Roll up your sleeve." He instructed, fetching a syringe.

**l**

Rattled by her encounter with General Landry, Vala headed back to Daniel's office to work on the prophecy. As she distractedly scribbled translations, she worried about what could have possibly gone so badly wrong in her interview to make Doctor Hutchinson want to meet with her again. She couldn't possibly have failed. Could she?

**l**

"Cam, Teal'c, I think I got something!"

Cam hurried over to Carter as she stood at the back of the cave, staring at her scanner as it slowly beeped. "Whatcha got?" He asked eagerly, shining his torch on her and illuminating the wall beside her.

"Well, it's a faint energy spike." Sam told him, stepping closer to the wall as her scanner beeped insistently. "I almost went past without noticing it." She ran her fingers over the wall and suddenly it gave way underneath her hand. The cave wall next to her hand shimmered and disappeared in a flash of blue light, revealing a small passageway, leading off from the entrance cavern.

"Shazam." Cam exclaimed, grinning as he stepped forward to investigate.

"I guess Daniel was right after all." He heard Sam say behind him as he shone his torch down a dusty passageway, littered with fallen rocks.

"Yes, he was." Cam agreed absently. "We should check this out."

"Would it not be prudent for one of us to return these samples to Dr Reimer as quickly as possible?" Teal'c suggested.

Frowning, Cam thought about it. "No, he's right." He decided. "We're on the clock and we have no idea how deep this hole is."

Struggling to think through the haze of exhaustion that surrounded her, Sam stared at Cam. "You're still not tired?" She asked.

"Nope." Cam admitted and Sam sighed.

"Alright, I'll go back." She said, passing him the lantern and picking up her pack. "Stay in radio contact... at least as long as you can." She told them as she turned to go.

Cam headed down the passageway, Teal'c following closely behind him. As Cam skirted round a huge boulder, Teal'c cleared his throat loudly.

"You truly are not tired?" The Jaffa asked.

Cam glanced back at the stoic man. "Not yet." He said. "How're you holding up?"

"I am most fatigued." Teal'c admitted, following Colonel Mitchell around a corner as the passageway headed down.

Colonel Mitchell looked back again. "Really?" He asked. "'Cause, you don't look it. Sam, she's got those bags under her eyes, Jackson's all rumpled and grumpy, Grimsby's... well, Grimsby!"

Teal'c frowned. "And you are not tired at all." He commented. "Most odd."

**l**

"So, you think it's the Mind-Melder causing it?" Cam asked Teal'c.

They'd been heading slowly downwards, following a circular path for hours. The passageway was big enough for the two of them to walk side by side now, except for when they had to skirt fallen debris. Cam was starting to wonder if it was a dead end.

"It could be." Teal'c rumbled, holding his lantern higher.

Cam glanced at him, annoyed. "Do you ever give a definite answer?" He asked.

"Yes."

In the silence that followed as he waited for Teal'c to elaborate, Cam heard a scuttling sound in the distance. He shone his torch in the direction he thought it had come from.

"Am I imagining things, or..." He said.

"I heard it as well." Teal'c confirmed.

They headed cautiously in the direction of the noise.

**l**

"Okay," Cam whispered. "I'll try and grab it, and get it pointing at you. That way, if he runs, you can try and catch him."

Teal'c nodded, sagging back against the rock wall. "Very well." He agreed.

Cam entered the small cave carefully, keeping his flashlight on the critter as it jumped from rock to rock. It noticed him coming and stopped to get a better look at him.

"Easy there... easy." Cam hushed it, easing closer. "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you." He promised as he suddenly lunged at the lizard, plucking it from the rock and hugging it tightly to his chest.

"I got it!" He yelled in jubilation. "Teal'c!"

Teal'c staggered into sight, his face haggard with exhaustion. "Well done, Colonel Mitchell." He congratulated, swaying as he stood.

"Thanks." Cam grinned, holding the reptile firmly as his long tail lashed against Cam's legs. "We'd better get Curly back to Reimer and Sam."

He started back the way they had come, Teal'c staggering behind him.

**l**

Jool suffered in silence throughout the whole meeting, fighting the urge to squirm every time Captain O'Neil spoke or she caught a glimpse of him. Somehow, she had managed to keep from blushing. She felt like a paedophile. He was six years younger than she was for God's sake! She had a sudden sickening thought as, just the other side of Oz; Captain O'Neil raised the matter of the fourth member of his team.

If Jon wasn't old enough to drink in America, then... how old did he have to be to do the kinds of things she could vaguely remember them having done the night before last? And just where had he picked up that trick with his teeth and her-

Jool blushed as Buffy told Giles to send Andrew, and scribbled herself a note to check America's age limits while Giles explained exactly _why _Andrew wasn't a suitable candidate. At length. Beside her, Oz shifted slightly in his seat.

"Why can't Willow come?" The pink-haired werewolf asked.

Willow blushed. "I thought about it, I really did." She assured him hurriedly. "But what if I'm off-world during an apocalypse? Besides, Kennedy really doesn't want to move to Colorado Springs. She says it's too cold-" Willow broke off mid-babble and glanced guiltily at Buffy.

"You told Kennedy?" Buff demanded to know.

"Not exactly." Willow bit her lip. "I just asked her what she thought about maybe moving to Colorado."

"Oh Willow!" Buffy exclaimed exasperatedly. "You know that the Slayers here are desperate to find out what's going on. What if Kennedy lets it slip?"

Jon watched them as Miss Rosenburg leapt to the defence of her lover. They were starting to let their cracks show, he thought. It was good. It meant that they were starting to trust him. Two chairs down from him Jool fidgeted in her seat again and Jon felt guilt settle in his belly. Would they still trust him if they knew what had happened in the early hours of yesterday morning?

He still couldn't believe what he'd done. With a member of his team. Within hours of meeting her. Couldn't even remember it, if he was being honest. His voice came out harsher than he'd expected as his frustration forced him to speech.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Jool fought the urge to squirm as Captain O'Neil cleared his throat and continued. "This isn't getting us anywhere. I suggest we reconvene tomorrow morning when you four have decided who you want send to help look for Faith." The Captain paused. "Or, I could call General O'Neill now?" He suggested smoothly. "Get him to assign another soldier to the team."

After a conference of glances, Lord Giles nodded. "Shall we break for the day?" He suggested.

Relief filled Jool and she started to gathered her belongings together. At last, she could escape, if only until tomorrow. She didn't even want to think about how she was going to manage as a member of his team...

Jon shuffled the papers in front of him awkwardly, clearing his throat as the room got to its feet. "If Lady Wilson could just stay behind for a few minutes...?" He asked. "It's about the on-base accommodation." He proffered the carefully crafted excuse in an off-hand tone.

Everyone seemed to accept it at face value, more concerned with shuffling their way out of the room. In a surprisingly short amount of time, the room was empty apart from Jool and himself. Jon found himself rapidly clicking his pen, a habit he'd picked up in high school, and forced himself to stop.

"So..." He said, and then when nothing better came to him, continued with, "How ya doing?"

"Okay, thanks." Jool responded automatically. "You?"

"Peachy."

They sat in silence, the ticking of the clock of the mantel their only accompaniment. Jool focussed on the fine grain of the oak table, trying not to hear Jon's breathing, smell his aftershave.

"Lovely weather." She commented.

Jon looked out of the window as rain dribbled down the outside of the thick glass. Dark clouds hung heavily over London, completely enveloping the top of the London Eye as they divulged massive amounts of water over England's capital.

"Wha..." He managed.

Jool shrugged, glancing at the top button of his shirt. "For ducks, anyway."

It was actually quite funny. Jon could feel a smile starting to twitch up the sides of his mouth and forced it back down. "Look, I didn't ask you to stay behind to talk about your room."

Jool frowned at his throat. "Then why...?" She asked, blushing and dropping her gaze to the table.

This was hell. It had to be. "I can't remember..." Jon managed, irritated by the blush he knew was staining his cheeks. "I didn't find a condom." He admitted. "I need to know... are you on the pill?"

Horrified, Jool stared directly into his brown eyes for the first time since the early hours of Sunday morning. Oh, fuck!

**l**

About halfway back to the surface, Teal'c fell to his knees, his breathing hard and heavy as he stared at the ground with a bowed head.

"Perhaps we should take a break." Colonel Mitchell suggested.

"No!" Teal'c insisted, forcing himself to his feet. "We must return to the village."

Cam nodded and fell in beside him, making sure that he matched his pace to Teal'c'. "I'm starting to regret staying up late to watch Deuce Bigalow: European Gigalo last night." He admitted and then frowned. "Check that, I regretted it almost immediately." He corrected himself.

**l**

Teal'c stumbled through the doorway into the entrance cavern and tripped on a rock. Falling, the heavy Jaffa managed to twist so that he landed flat on his back with a grunt.

"Easy there, big guy." Colonel Mitchell was by his side in seconds, still clutching the creature. "Stay with me. You okay?"

Teal'c sighed and looked past the man. Daylight shone through the cave entrance just ahead and Teal'c rolled onto his front, pushing himself up into a kneeling position and then standing upright as he headed single-mindedly for the watery sunlight.

Behind him, Cam stood. "Guess so." He commented to himself following Teal'c outside in time to see the large Jaffa collapse.

Breaking into a sprint, he reached Teal'c just after the guys in the hazmat suits did. He handed Curly to one of them with instructions to see that he got to a lab and helped the rest to lift Teal'c into one of the isolation pods. As he straightened his back with a sigh and the medical team slid the cover over his teammate, Cam noticed the second isolation unit.

"No way." He said, backing away. "Just stick me in a spare hazmat."

One of the technicians shook his head. "We didn't bring any spares." He said, his voice distorted by the speaker in his suit. "You can walk to the 'gate if you want." He offered.

Cam shrugged and helped them to carry his pod back through the forest. It was probably the best offer he was going to get. Catching sight of his watch as they entered the village, he realised that he was almost twelve hours late for the update. As he trudged back to the Stargate, Cam wondered if anything had happened on Terluna while he was gone.

**l**

Jool tried not to hyperventilate as she hurried into the lavatories. Oh God, how had she been so stupid? She was a doctor! She turned the cold tap on at one of the marble sinks and splashed water over her face, sighing as she felt her hectic blush finally start to fade.

Behind her a toilet flushed and Jool looked up to meet her own wild eyes as a lock clicked back and Kennedy sauntered out, her glossy dark hair hanging loose down her back. Jool watched water drip from her own face as the other slayer stepped up to a sink and began to wash her hands.

Kennedy glanced at her in the mirror as she turned the taps off. "You and the Captain, huh?" The brunette asked.

And just like that, the blush was back. "I don't know what you're talking about." Jool managed to stammer, staring at her hands as she rubbed them together under the cold tap. When had they gone numb?

"Sure." Kennedy smirked as she wiped her hands on the thick towel hung over a rail. "Catch you later."

Shaking with rage as the door closed behind the bitch, Jool carefully turned off the tap and shook the excess water from her hands. She _**really **_needed to kill something tonight.

**l**

Vala's eyebrows rose when the elevator doors opened to reveal four men in hazmat suits holding a long white oblong. Shrugging she squeezed in next to them.

"Level twenty-two, please." She requested as the doors slid closed and glanced down to see Colonel Mitchell staring patiently up at her from inside the white bow. Vala blinked. "Colonel? What happened?" She asked.

He shrugged and mouthed something at her while gesturing to his ear.

"Where's Daniel?" Vala continued. Mitchell frowned and mouthed something. "Daniel!" Vala shouted.

"He can't hear you." The man next to her said with a wince as the doors opened.

"Level twenty-two." His teammate by the control panel informed her helpfully.

Vala glared at him. "Never mind." She said. "I'll follow you."

The second man shrugged and the doors slid closed as the elevator moved up a level. Following them through the hallways, Vala was stopped from entering the isolation room by one of the technicians. Already expecting it, she skipped through the next door over and up the stairs into the observation room. General Landry and Doctor Lam were waiting there for the medical team to finish running a series of tests on Colonel Mitchell and leave the room before they began questioning to question him. They accepted her presence with no more than a grunt from General Landry and a glance up from her laptop from the Doctor as she switched through screens. Vala eased herself onto a stool and resolved to keep her mouth shut.

"What happened?" The General asked as soon as the door had closed behind the last medic.

Cam shrugged. "I don't know." He said honestly. "Carter and Reimer were working on it while Teal'c and I captured Curly." He frowned. "Curly's safe, right?"

Frowning, General Landry looked at his daughter and she opened a new screen on her laptop.

"If you mean the lizard you captured in the cave system, Doctor Newman is currently running tests on her before settling her in to her new home." She informed Colonel Mitchell.

"Good." Cam hopped up onto the bed. "You got to reverse-engineer an antidote or something from her. She's the only thing still alive on that planet."

Landry was still frowning. "How is it that you're still awake?" He asked.

"Even Teal'c has succumbed." Doctor Lam added. "You've been awake for at least thirty-eight hours." A report pinged up on her laptop screen and she glanced at it. "Your melatonin levels are critically high."

Cam yawned and lay back on the bed, kicking off his boots. "Teal'c thinks it might be some kind of after-effect of the Mind-Melder." He told them. "Reimer was running extra tests."

"It was a dead end." Doctor Lam told him absently as she scrolled down the report.

"Where's Daniel?" Vala asked and she looked at her.

"He, Colonel Carter, Sergeant Grimsby and Teal'c are all asleep in different isolation rooms." She informed Vala. "I'm monitoring their conditions from here while my staff comb through their research." She tapped a few buttons and a picture of a large bug appeared on all of the screens in the observation room. "We're fairly certain that this parasite that they picked up in the cave is the culprit."

"I'm fairly sure I didn't see anything like that in there." Cam said, staring at the bug in horror, his southern accent unusually strong.

Doctor Lam smiled. "It starts off microscopically small, works its way into the bloodstream and lodges in the brain where it forces the overproduction of melatonin and..." She broke off as another report flashed up on her screen. "I have to go." She informed them, closing her laptop and standing.

"What happened?" Vala asked, jumping up and following her out. "Is it Daniel? Is he alright?"

General Landry chuckled wryly as the door closed behind them and turned back to his second-in-command. "She passed the psych evaluation." He told him.

"Really?" Cam asked and the General nodded. "What happened on Terluna?"

General Landry's smile disappeared "She came and left again." He said.

Cam frowned, sitting up. "What?"

"It happened an hour or so after the last update. Faith and that other girl came running into the clearing and dialled out." The General explained. "They must have got back there by ship."

Cam glanced at his watch. "Then why didn't they leave that way?" He wondered, frowning.

"Try and get some rest." Landry instructed him.

"No offence sir, but I'd rather not sleep until that bug is dead." Cam said, trying not to look at the screens still displaying the gruesome photograph of the creature.

"I understand." The General said sympathetically. "I'll expect a full report of your activities on Vagonbrei _**before **_you see the Terluna recording."

At least he turned the screens off before he left.

**l**

Somewhere, birds were singing. The sun shone through a window to lie, hot and heavy, across her hips and thighs. The air smelt like fresh bread, warm and yeasty, and the soft sheets slid smoothly over her skin.

She knew it was too good to be true... Faith cracked open an eye to peer beneath the sheets. She groaned at the sight of her naked body. This was getting to be a fucking habit! Okay, she told herself, lying back against the squishy pillow and staring up at the timbered ceiling, think. What's the last thing you can remember?

_She yawned, unbearably tired, as they staggered into a bustling Jaffa town. Mallie peered at her, frowning in concern._

_"Are you alright?" Mallie asked, guiding her to a convenient step and sitting her down._

She didn't appear to be a prisoner and her room was pleasantly, if plainly, furnished. The key was in the lock on the inside of the door. Other than the fact that she couldn't remember how she got there, there was nothing to suggest foul play. Except...

Where the hell was Mallie?

Getting up, Faith opened a drawer at random and grinned at the sight of the leather pants she had liberated from Vanna's storeroom. At least she had something to wear while she looked.

**l**

Two airmen wheeled in a large screen as Doctor Lam was telling him that the melly-whatsit critter was finally dead and completely distracted him while the Doc extracted some more blood from his arm and huffed off. Settling back into a more comfortable position, Cam yawned as he pressed play and a shot of the Stargate clearing filled the screen. Sure, _now _he felt tired!

**l**

She had had to use a strip of the despised Ori dress as a belt because she had lost so much weight. Not that she cared. Faith explored the large wood and plaster building she had woken in, sticking her head around door with no concern for what she might find in the rooms within. So far she'd discovered ten bedrooms, four with people in them, a linen cupboard, a broom cupboard and the kitchen. And that her new pants chafed. She had yet to find Mallie or the way out. Trying another door, she discovered a bar.

Now that was more like it.

Closing the door behind her, Faith approached the bar, ignoring the other customers. "Something to drink and two of the chef's special." She ordered as the barmaid drew near. She'd worry about how she was gonna pay for it later.

The older woman nodded, her short spiky hair staying fixed firmly in place despite the movement. "If you'd like to join your friend in the private bar?" She invited, jerking her head at a door on the other side of the room with a significant glance at the other inhabitants of the bar.

"Sure." Faith frowned and walked slowly to the other door, wondering if she was walking into a trap again.

Fuck it, she decided and reached out for the door handle. As long as she got fed, she didn't really care. She quietly pushed open the door and entered the room. The only other inhabitant of the room twisted in her chair in front of the fireplace to see who had come in as Faith closed the door behind her.

Mallie gasped. "Oh, Faith!" She cried and rushed over.

Faith threw up an arm to fend her off. "Stop!" She ordered and Mallie skidded to a halt, millimetres from Faith's outstretched hand. "We gotta talk about you not hugging me every time you see me." She said. "I get that you hug, I do. But I don't. You get me?"

"I believe so." Malina frowned as she puzzled out Faith's meaning. "You do not wish me to embrace you any more?"

Faith sighed in relief. "Damn straight." She said, flinging herself into a chair. "What happened?"

**l**

They were the first to arrive. After exhausting all of the usual pleasantries, Jon and Jool sat in an uncomfortable silence until the door opened and Oz entered. The short man blinked as they both tried to start up conversations with him at the same time and sat down in what was quickly becoming his usual seat between them.

"Where're the others?" He asked.

"Don't know." Jool said at the same time as Jon spoke.

"They're late." The young captain said, scowling at his watch.

Oz nodded. "Huh."

The clock on the mantel continued to tick away the minutes as they waited. Finally, just as Jon was about to suggest that they ditch the meeting, the oak door opened and the late arrivals finally appeared.

"Sorry we're late." Lord Giles apologised as they sat down. "The conversation overran somewhat." Buffy snorted and he glared at her. "On the other hand," he continued. "We've decided who to send."

"Great." Jon told him. "Before we get into that, I've got some news." Quickly, he told them about Faith's reappearance on Terluna, promising to provide them with a copy of the tape as soon as it arrived. "It does mean that the 'Gate addresses they pulled from the DHD the second time around almost a day out of date." He explained.

Next to him, Oz was taking notes. "Does it matter?" The usually taciturn man asked.

Jon scoffed. "No. It's unlikely they'll trace her through them anyway. They'll have pulled hundreds of addresses from the DHD and they could have just turned straight around and dialled again."

"So Faith's alive and kicking ass, but still lost?" Xander asked him from across the table.

"Yeah, sure you betcha." Jon assured him.

It was strange, but despite the younger man's off-hand tone Xander felt reassured. He sat back and waited for the fireworks when they revealed the fourth member of Jon's team as the younger man answered more questions.

Or was he? Several of Jon's mannerisms and quirks of speech marked him out as a much older man, despite his youthful appearance. What kind of teenager used aftershave every day, for example? Unlike his friends, Xander hadn't believed for one minute that General O'Neill would saddle them with a greenhorn. No, there was definitely more to Captain Jonathan O'Neil than he was letting on. But that was okay. As long as his secrets didn't come back to bite them in the ass, Jon could keep them as far as Xander was concerned. The one-eyed carpenter tuned back into the conversation as Jon was explaining his plan to take his team on patrol that night, so he could get an idea of how they reacted in a battle situation.

"That's actually a good idea." Buffy said.

"Gee, thanks." Jon said flatly.

"You told him we're sending Andrew then?" Xander asked.

Giles glared at him. "We hadn't got that far, no." He took his glasses off and polished them.

"Aww, crap." Jon whined. "Do you hafta?"

**l**

Malina had just finished telling Faith about how she had managed to secure them both rooms in the inn after Faith had mysteriously collapsed on its front step two days ago when there was a soft knock on the door and it opened.

"Sorry it took so long." Kay said, entering the room and setting the laden tray she carried on the low table before the fire. "Technically it's the cook's lunch break but I managed to convince her to make you something to eat." She explained, sitting in one of the comfortable chairs by the fire.

Faith frowned at the interloper as she picked up a tankard. "That's great, thanks." She told her. "Haven't you got somewhere else to be?"

As Kay burst into laughter at the thought, Malina rushed to explain. "Kay owns the inn. She is a slayer too."

Clearly not convinced, Faith eyed Kay sceptically. "Prove it." She challenged.

Malina glanced apologetically at Kay as the other woman casually reached over the fireplace and picked up the poker. Bending it into a knot, she tossed it onto the table in front of Faith.

The brunette slayer shrugged, unimpressed, sipping from her tankard. "Okay." She acknowledged the older woman. "You're a slayer. Welcome to the club."

Kay smiled at the woman. "And you're a Tau'ri," she said. "Although you don't look like any Tau'ri I've ever met. Apart from the trousers and they're not uncommon these days."

"You've met an SG team? Which one?"

Ah, now she'd managed to interest the enigmatic Faith. "SG-9." Kay told her, observing her closely.

"Major Grogan's team?" Faith asked and Kay relaxed. She'd met Grogan once. It had been some years ago and he had been a lieutenant then, but the name was enough to convince her that Faith was who she said she was. For now.

"He still owes me fifty bucks from poker night." Faith mused, pulling a plate of food towards her as she shifted awkwardly in her seat. Damn, these pants chafed!

**l**

The next morning they all seemed to gather naturally in Carter's lab. She had arrived first and put a pot of coffee on and they all helped themselves to a cup as they arrived, chatting companionably. Daniel suggested a movie night and Teal'c suggested Star Wars. Cam told them about Faith's second departure from Terluna and Sam promised to run some more tests on the Mind-Melder as the conversation began to turn to the recent events on Vagonbrei.

Eventually Jackson managed to coax Teal'c into telling him about his hallucination in the cave as Cam fetched himself another cup of coffee.

"I believed that I was the one to capture Curly." Teal'c told them in a monotone. "That Colonel Mitchell collapsed shortly afterwards and that I alone carried the creature to the surface. I continued to believe this until I awoke this morning and Doctor Lam assured me otherwise."

"What about you?" Daniel asked Sam. "Any hallucinations?"

Sam shivered. "Yeah, when they put me in the pod, I imagined I was being put in a coffin. I thought I was being buried alive."

All things considered, he was glad he hadn't had any of the symptoms that the others had, Cam decided as General Landry entered the room.

"Well, rise and shine. How're you feeling?" The General asked.

Cam got to his feet. "Rested and ready to go, sir." He reported.

"I assume Doctor Lam got you up to speed?" Landry asked.

Sam nodded. "Yes, sir. Between the sample Colonel Mitchell collected, and the research Dr. Reimer and I conducted, they were able to produce a serum that effectively isolated the parasite and starved it out."

"I just hate that the cave was a dead end." Cam said. "We went through all that for nothing."

Jackson smiled faintly. "I wouldn't say that, exactly. I did find one reference in that library that might prove to be useful... Atlantis."

Sam stared at him. "You think the location of Merlin's weapon is hidden in their database?" She asked.

"I think it's worth checking out." Daniel told her as the phone began to ring.

As it was her office, Sam picked it up. "Carter." She said. "I see. We'll be right there." Hanging up, she turned to General Landry. "There seems to be a problem in the Gateroom, sir." She informed him.

Concerned, they all filed out to discover what was going on. Cam found himself walking next to General Landry as the group headed for the elevators.

"The Odyssey leaves for Atlantis in two days." The General mentioned.

Cam frowned as they all crowded into an empty elevator. "SG-13 arrives in three." He reminded him.

"I know." The General said grimly.

**l**

The three slayers sat in silence in the private bar, the remains of a substantial breakfast on the table between them. Suddenly they all pricked their ears up, hearing the distant sound of screams and weapons-fire. Standing, they gathered at the window to peer at the great billows of smoke rising in the distance. At other end of the street, a platoon of Ori soldiers rounded the corner.

"Damn." Faith swore. "Where's the zat?"

**l**

They were debating the best place to go for lunch when Sam's hand shot out, pressing the button for level nineteen in time for the elevator to shudder to a halt.

"Got an idea." The blonde astrophysist said as the doors slid open. "I'll catch up." She promised as she rushed from the elevator.

Daniel's held the doors open as they started to close. "I , uh, just want to draft a quick email to Elizabeth Weir." He said, sidling out. "The Atlantis check-in is tomorrow."

Vala sighed mournfully as the doors closed and then looked brightly up at Colonel Mitchell. "I'll pay you back?" She promised hopefully.

**l**

"Get 'em, boys!" Kay yelled, throwing open the front door of the inn on her way past to the bar.

Faith watched in amazement as her customers snatched up their weapon of choice and ran out into the street, yelling war cries as they went.

"Way to motivate a crowd." She commented as Kay popped up from behind the bar, a large grin on her face and a Jaffa staff weapon in each hand.

Laying one of the staffs on the bar, Kay reached back underneath it. "I've got two more zat'nik'tels if you're more comfortable with using those." She offered.

Already stroking the staff weapon lovingly, Faith took one of the zats as well. Mallie had theirs in one hand and she hesitated as Kay placed the other on the bar.

"Take it." The short-haired Slayer urged, vaulting easily over the bar and striding over to peer out of the open door.

Kay jerked her head inside a split second before a bright blue bolt of light impacted with the doorframe where it had been and used the distraction to angle her staff weapon around the wall. She fired and someone screamed.

"Ready?" Kay asked with a glance back at the other two slayers.

Faith grinned, her dark eyes dancing. "Fuck, yeah!" She exclaimed and they charged into the battle raging outside.

**l**

Jon paused at the top of the staircase before they saw him and surveyed his new team. They stood in the middle of the foyer with Buffy, Xander and Miss Rosenburg as teams of slayers and watchers streamed out of the door for their first patrol of the evening. Andrew was talking animatedly to a stoic Oz as an amused Xander watched from a safe distance. Jool was chatting with Miss Rosenburg and Buffy. As Jon descended the stairs, she looked up at him and then quickly away.

The guilt settled like a stone in Jon's stomach and he resolutely pushed it away. As heavy as his conscience was, it had no place here. Not when he finally had a team to lead again. Even if he had yet to work out _how _he was going to turn them into a SG team. Especially since he only had two days left to do it.

Jon stopped thinking as he reached the foot of the staircase and joined the group. He groaned as he caught the tail end of Andrew's one-sided conversation with Oz.

"...Course it's just a cover-up." The young man said confidently. "Everyone knows that the Stargate's in Iraq. That's why America really invaded."

"You haven't told him yet?" Jon asked Xander quietly.

The other man shook his head slightly. "We were kinda hoping you would." He muttered. "Maybe when you get there?"

"Get where?" Andrew asked innocently.

A deathly hush fell over the group. Around them, girls rushed through the crowded foyer on their way to somewhere else. When it became obvious that everyone was waiting for him to speak, Jon sighed heavily.

"Where _**are **_we going tonight?" He asked.

**l**

Faith grinned grimly as she fired the staff weapon at a barrel near a grouping of Ori soldiers who were too busy firing at Malina to notice her. Whatever had been in the barrel was obviously flammable as it exploded with a rush of heat and a large fireball that set light to the thatch of the house next to them, giving her a great idea. Firing her zat rapidly, she swung the staff around her head to knock out a nearby soldier, looking around for Kay. The older slayer was in the centre of a ring of soldiers, grinning as she exchanged blows with them all and Faith quickly hurried over to cover her back.

Tomin glanced around the corner of the street in time to watch two women decimate the patrol he had just sent in to quell the situation. Throwing himself back to safety as a Jaffa fired at him, he lay sprawled at the feet of his men as he radioed the ship to send in reinforcements.

Malina dived behind a cart full of vegetables as a bolt of deadly energy shot into the ground two feet behind where she had stood. Taking aim through the cartwheels, the young slayer fired her twin zat'nik'tels repeatedly into a group of Ori. She could feel the weapons starting to overheat in her hands as she shoved herself back onto her feet, the soldiers all either dead or unconscious, but she did not allow herself to worry about it, concentrating on the task at hand instead. Rule number one, Faith had told her. Don't die.

Where was Faith? Looking around, Malina could not see her, or Kay. Dodging weapons-fire, she ran across the wide street, hoping to see them from there. Firing at anyone who looked like they might be about to fire at her, Malina kept her back to Kay's inn as she looked for either of the other two slayers.

"Fire in the hole!" Faith yelled on her way out of the door.

Firing the zat in her hand as she ran, she hurled the Molotov cocktail she held in her other hand at three Ori soldiers trying to creep up on Mallie and dodged back into the inn for a refill. Behind the bar, Kay was stuffing rags into bottles as quickly as she could. Leaving her zat on the bar this time next the her staff weapon, Faith lit two of the bottles and ran with them. She already had her targets picked out.

Grinning, Malina took full advantage of the distraction Faith offered as she dodged in and out of the inn, creating mayhem whenever she was on the street. Gradually her world reduced to the next soldier, the next explosion and the next blow as the blonde girl danced the millennia-old dance of the Slayer.

The explosives Faith had rigged seemed to be doing the trick. The numbers of Ori on the street were falling rapidly and no more seemed to be arriving to take up their battle. Grabbing the last bottle from the bar Kay followed Faith outside.

Her peaceful road had been devastated. Half of the houses were on fire and the street was paved with the dead and dying. Two more explosions as Faith threw her bottles set light to the drapers shop next door to her inn. Choking smoke lay thickly upon the ground, as it billowed and shifted in the breeze Kay thought she caught sight of a woman in front of her.

Turning to check that Malina and Faith were still behind her, Kay missed the tall woman who emerged from the smoke directly in front of her. Turning back, Kay caught a fleeting glimpse of brown eyes and black hair before the woman jerked her head, and Kay flew backwards into the wall of her inn, noticing that one of her precious flower baskets was on fire along the way.

As she slid painfully down the wall, towards the ground, Faith tackled Malina out of the way of a blue bolt of energy from a grim-looking dark-haired soldier, firing her zat at him. He fell to the ground, unconscious and within seconds, Faith was back on her feet and helping Malina to hers as the newcomer strode towards them.

"That," Faith said grimly to Mallie. "Is Adria."

Adria smiled. "Hello Faith." She greeted. "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to talk when we last met."

That was when Kay threw the last bottle. As Adria's slender body was engulfed in flames, Faith grabbed Mallie's hand and pulled her over to Kay.

"Get to the 'Gate." Faith ordered. "We've got to get off this planet."

Kay frowned, resisting Faith's attempts to get her moving. "You're just going to run away from her?"

"From Adria?" Faith asked as behind her, the flames died down to reveal the untouched and furious figure of the Orici. "Hell, yeah!"

**l**

Sam opened her presentation file and stood up, as the schematics for the Ori Supergate appeared on the large screen behind her.

"It's only a matter of time until the Ori send reinforcements through the Supergate." She told the room, clicking the remote in her hand so that the screen zoomed in on a segment of the Supergate. "So far the Asgard been unable to use the dialling control crystal we inserted into the Supergate to dial out. We've tried to dial the Supergate from here but it seems to be designed to only accept connections from another galaxy." She paused, her eyes sparkling. "Say for example, Pegasus."

Across the table, Teal'c' eyebrow rose. Sam smiled at the encouraging sign and continued. "The problem with using a regular 'Gate to dial the Supergate from Pegasus is that a regular 'Gate wouldn't be able to contain the energy output from the Supergate. The forces involved would literally tear our 'Gate apart." Sam frowned. "I'm glad we weren't able to make a connection from here actually." She shook her head to dispel the thought of what might have happened and continued.

"But," she said. "If we were to connect to a Stargate near the Supergate from Pegasus then there is an extremely good chance that we could force the wormhole to jump to the Supergate."

"Jump?" Vala asked, frowning. "How?"

"You need a nuke." Cam said from across the table from Vala, his eyes fixed on Sam.

"Exactly!" Sam said, smiling at him. "By setting the explosive off at the event horizon," she clicked the remote so that they could see what she meant, "we should be able to create a large enough energy spike that the outgoing wormhole will jump to the Supergate. The problem then, will be maintaining the connection for more than a few minutes at best."

General Landry frowned. "How so?"

Sam clicked the remote so that he could see the projected amount of energy required to maintain a connection to the Supergate. "We just can't generate enough power." She told him. "Unless we can locate a black hole in the Pegasus galaxy and use that to power the connection we won't be able to tie up the Ori Supergate for more than... ten minutes."

"Let's just hope Atlantis can point you in the right direction." General Landry said. "What else do you need?"

"At least three Mark Four's and a dialling crystal capable of connecting between galaxies." Sam told him.

"They don't exactly grow on trees." Daniel pointed out.

Sam looked at him, a small smile on her face. "Actually, I think I know where we might find one."

**l**

"Got it!" Kay yelled from the dialling device as the Stargate engaged with a rushing plume of water and the Ori crashed through the undergrowth behind them.

Faith didn't even hesitate, diving straight in as soon as the rippling water had settled back down. There was the usual icy rushed sensation of moving very quickly while staying absolutely still and then the Stargate on the other end spat her out. Into salt water. Panicking for a second, Faith flailed helplessly before she managed to get herself under control and swim far enough away to get a good look at the problem.

The Stargate seemed to be wedged in a crevice in the seabed, she realised as a detached part of her mind noticed the vague outline of a mushroom device in the murky distance. Mallie and Kay exited the Stargate at almost the same time and both immediately panicked. Satisfied she'd done the right thing in sticking around, despite the fact that the lack of oxygen was now becoming an issue, Faith swam over to them, giving each a shove up towards the surface before she kicked off from the bottom of the ocean and followed them up.

**A/N: **

I don't want to turn into one of those awful authors who's constantly begging for reviews and I know that I've given this story a higher rating because of all the strong language etc etc. That said, my last chapter didn't get one review. Not one!

Am I really such a bad writer? Honestly, if you hate it, I'd far rather you tell me than I continue struggling on.

Please review :(

Update: As I was checking through this chapter prior to posting it, the previous one got a review!! So, Lisa... Thank you for your lovely review. I would hug you but stupid won't let me put the asterisks in! ;)


	7. Nothing to Fear

Water streaming from her body, Faith staggered ashore just ahead of Mallie and Kay. Staring at the dense forest leading up a cloud-hidden mountain that bordered the small sandy cove as the two other slayers collapsed to lie gasping on the sand behind her, she allowed despair to sink in. Just for a little.

She and Mallie had swum for what felt like hours before they had spotted the cove, the first place they had seen that wasn't walled in by sheer cliffs. The hellish swim had been made worse by the fact that Kay couldn't swim and they'd had to literally tow the older woman to land. The Jaffa staff Kay had been carrying when she came through the gate was still on the ocean floor, in front of the Stargate. Fortunately, Mallie and Faith had managed to hang onto their zats. Faith was just grateful for the extra pockets in her SGC combat pants even if the extra weight hadn't helped.

Glancing up at the sun, Faith called to the other two slayers as she headed into the forest. She didn't know how much longer they had until the sun set but it was definitely headed towards the horizon and she was determined to find at least some sign of civilization before night came.

**l**

"Okay campers." Jon addressed the other members of SG-13 as they stood expectantly in front of him. "Intel suggests there's about six vampires in there. We have the element of surprise and a slayer," he nodded to Jool who flushed. "So we should have the upper hand." Andrew put his hand up and Jon nodded. "Yes?" He asked.

"We know that." The blonde man whined. "Why are you telling us again?"

Jon smiled humourlessly at him. "Humour me." He suggested and the young man subsided. "Where was I? Right! Doctor Wilson will break the door down and she and I will enter the nest first. Osbourne, you and Wells will follow us in and hold the door in case we have to retreat." He instructed his team before sighing and looking past them. "Xander..."

Xander swallowed his mouthful of chocolaty goodness hurriedly. "We'll stay out of your way." He assured the youthful captain.

"It'll be like we're not even here." Willow added, popping a handful of Minstrels into her mouth.

Jon didn't mind Buffy sending the pair to keep an eye on them. He really didn't. Under similar circumstances, he'd probably have done the same. But did they have to bring snacks?

**l**

Another branch dislodged by Faith's passing whipped back to slap Kay in the face. Pointedly, the older woman held the branch back until Malina had passed. The girl thanked her politely and Kay fell into step beside her as they followed Faith through the overgrown forest.

"Where is she going?" Kay asked Malina quietly.

Malina shrugged wearily. "Up."

It was true that Faith seem set on climbing the mountain in front of them. What little could be seen of it through the tree canopies was harsh and forbidding. The dark green forest, broken only by grey cliff-faces, crawled up steep slopes to the ominous clouds that veiled its peak. The temperature under the trees was cool and Kay shivered as her clothes stuck clammily to her, the salt in the water beginning to build up and chafe.

Malina stumbled over an exposed tree root and Kay reached out to steady her, peering closely at her in concern. The young slayer's blue eyes were dull with fatigue and shadows hung under them. Her face was pale and she moved jerkily, as though she wasn't focussing on where she was going.

This was ridiculous! They couldn't go on. Gently guiding Malina to a fallen tree, Kay sat the young girl down with instructions to stay there and charged after Faith.

"Wait, Faith!" She shouted as she caught sight of the still moving slayer, hurrying to catch up with her.

Just what was a slayer when they were at home anyway? In thirty-six years of life Kay had never heard so much as a whisper of them. Malina hadn't been able to give her a satisfactory answer and after Faith had woken up yesterday she had only been around long enough to devour three Jaffa-sized meals, grunt a few times in response to her questions and then run off, claiming she was tired. Honestly! Tired after sleeping for two days?

That was another thing. Since Kay had changed two years ago, she hadn't needed more than four hours of sleep a night. If Faith said they were all slayers (and Malina said she did) then why had the other girl needed to sleep for so long? It was all very confusing.

Although Faith continued to climb upwards, Kay swiftly closed the gap between them, grabbing Faith by the arm and swinging the younger woman around to face her. The look on Faith's face, set and determined, gave her pause for one moment but she ploughed on regardless.

"What is wrong with you?" She stormed. "I told you to wait. Can't you see Malina's exhausted?"

Faith blinked. "What's wrong with me?" she asked rhetorically. "I'll tell you what the hell's wrong with me. I'm stuck on a planet with no clue how to get back to Earth, let alone raise the damn Stargate from the sea floor! I can't find any sign that this place has got anyone else on it; night's coming; we don't have anywhere to shelter; and my cigarettes are soaked; so, if you want to say one more fucking word to me, I will happily slap you into next Tuesday just to relieve this mad itch I got to slay somethin'." She smiled suddenly and artificially. "'Kay?"

Kay's throat felt dry. She quickly swallowed. "Yes?" she croaked.

"Cool." Faith nodded and started back the way they'd come. "Where'd you ditch Mallie?"

**l**

Malina carefully blinked just to make certain she was not imagining it. No, it was still there. Almost invisible against the dark cliff wall and obscured by some sort of creeping plant that trailed over the cave entrance, but it was there. She was checking the ground for any animal tracks when Faith and Kay walked into sight.

"Thought you were exhausted?" Faith asked, shooting a dirty look at Kay.

"I was." Malina said absently, waving a hand at the cliff. "Then I saw that cave."

Cave? Faith bounded over to the cliff for a better look. "Wicked. Nice one Mallie." Oblivious to the way that Malina glowed under her praise, even if Kay wasn't, Faith continued. "Now all we gotta do is get some firewood, find a stream, maybe catch something to eat." She added as her stomach rumbled loudly. "You guys sort the fire. I'll handle dinner." She told them confidently.

**l**

The Intel was screwed. There had been at least fifteen vampires in the large basement apartment when Jool kicked down the door, dusting two of the demons with the crossbows in her hands before discarding the weapons and pulling two stakes from somewhere. Jon had lost track of her shortly after that, catching glimpses of her cutting swathes through the crowd as he fought against creatures far stronger than himself. Ducking a clumsy swing from a vampire, he shoved his stake under its guard and through its heart as he bobbed back up. Looking around for another target, he noticed Andrew holding off a huge vampire with nothing more than a cross and some holy water. He seemed to have lost his stake. Cursing under his breath, Jon headed over to help him out.

"He's good." Xander said, watching the fight from the doorway with his bestest bud.

Willow tossed a fireball at a vampire which charged at them, intent on escaping. "Yep." She agreed as the vampire screamed and turned into dust. "Cute too."

His hand in the bag of Doritos, Xander froze, looking at her. "What happened to 'gay now'?" He asked.

"I can still appreciate the male form." Willow told him airily. "Dip?"

Oz could feel the wolf rippling beneath the surface of his skin, begging to be let out to play. Savagely, he punched the vampire he was fighting in the nose, staking her as she staggered back, blood streaming from her nostrils. He snarled as he moved on to the next, briefly exposing teeth that rivalled the vampire's own.

The stars were pretty. Jon shook his throbbing head to dispel them and dived out of the way of another punch, rolling swiftly to his feet and circling the vampire cautiously, looking for an opening. As the vampire turned to keep him in sight, he turned his back on Andrew who took advantage of his distraction to creep up behind him and press his cross into the back of the vampire's head. Howling, the vampire lurched away and Jon smoothly staked him.

"Thanks." Andrew smiled at Jon as the dust settled between them.

"Don't mention it." Jon told him, handing him his spare stake and brushing the dust off his shirt.

Andrew's eyes widened a split second before Jon felt someone grab hold of him from behind and throw him into a wall. Groaning, he used the couch next to him to push himself back onto his feet, his body aching. Looking up, he only had time to register the fist flying towards him before it hit. Staggering back against the wall, he kept his eye on his opponent, who looked like an ordinary teenage boy, right down to the acne.

"Shouldn't you be working in McDonalds?" Jon couldn't resist taunting him.

Incredibly, the vampire looked at his watch. "Shit." He said. "I'm late."

As last words went they seemed kinda fitting, Jon mused as the vampire exploded into dust. Catching sight of Jool's long red hair spiralling over a vampire's shoulder as he bent his head to her neck across the room, Jon felt suddenly cold. No.

Crossing the distance between them in a few long strides, Jon rammed his stake into the vampire's exposed back, twisting it with savage satisfaction. As the vampire turned to dust, so did the stake he had left in its back and Jon was left with an empty upraised fist as Jool turned to face him.

"Uh..." She said, staring up at him, her hand clamped to her neck. "Thank you."

"You're hurt." Jon told her, frowning at her neck. "Let me see."

"Oh. No, really," Jool objected as he stepped closer and peeled her fingers away from her neck. "It's nothing."

Jon angled her head to get a better look at the wound. "Looks nasty." He told her.

"It'll be healed in two days." Jool shrugged, stepping back. "Duty calls." She said, moving to help out Osbourne as he fought two of the demons, somehow managing to hold his own even if he couldn't quite stake either of them.

By the time he was helping Andrew to fight the only other vampire left, Jool had already dispatched one of them, standing back to let Oz stake the other one on his own. Within minutes the fight was over and they were standing in the dust-strewn flat.

"So," Jon said into the silence. "Beer anyone?"

**l**

Oh God. She'd killed Bambi. She hadn't meant to. Standing on the edge of a small clearing with her eyes shut, she'd fired the zat instinctively as soon as she'd heard the first rustle. And she'd killed Bambi.

Staring down at the small fawn, Faith wondered what the hell she was supposed to do next. Surely three slayers, no matter how hungry, couldn't manage the whole animal. How were they supposed to cook it? Didn't she have to take the intestines out or some crap like that? Screw that! Demon goo, yes. Entrails, no.

Surely they wouldn't need... all of it? Saying that, she didn't relish the thought of carrying half back. They'd need all the food they could get if they couldn't figure a way off this planet. If they were stuck here for good-

No. Not gonna happen. She was gonna get off this rock. Then she was gonna figure out a way home. Then she was gonna jump Cameron Mitchell's bones. All this fighting the Ori was making her real horny. And hungry.

Sighing, Faith carefully slung the carcass across her shoulders and headed back to the cave. Maybe Kay might know what to do next? She'd run an inn after all... and served some damn good food. She must know about shit like this.

**l**

"What is _that_?" Kay asked, horrified.

"Dinner." Faith told her as she let Bambi fall to the forest floor with a sickening crunch. "What **are** you doin'?"

Kay glanced down at the two forgotten pieces of wood nestled in amongst dry bracken in front of her. "Starting the fire." She said, picking up the long thin stick and putting it back into place on the long flat bit. "Malina showed me what to do."

As Kay furiously rolled the stick between her palms, pressing it down against other piece, Faith pulled something small out of one of her many pockets and knelt on one knee beside the bracken. Putting her hand right next to it, Kay watched as Faith rapidly moved her thumb down and a small flame shot out of her clenched fist. Recoiling back with a gasp, Kay watched in amazement as the small flame rapidly set fire to the dry kindling and Faith began to feed small pieces of wood to the flickering flames. Within what seemed like no time at all, the Tau'ri woman had built a roaring fire.

Sitting back from the blaze with a sigh, Faith wiped a dirty hand over her brow as she looked around for the first time since she had arrived and noticed that Mallie was gone. Turning, she asked Kay where the younger girl was.

"I went to find a stream like you said." The girl in question answered as she approached the camp through the dense trees. Catching sight of the dead fawn, she stopped. "Oh my, is that dinner?"

"Yup." Faith told her cheerfully as Kay paled at the reminder. "Don't suppose you know what to do next?"

Considering the carcass as she looked at it, Malina nodded. "May I borrow your knife?" she asked.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Kay groaned.

"Why do you not go and collect some dry bracken to sleep on tonight instead?" Malina suggested, slitting the dead deer's throat. "We need to hang it up to bleed out." She told Faith matter-of-factly.

Horrified, Kay scrambled off in search of bracken before she really _was_ sick.

**l**

Faith was impressed by the way Mallie had quietly and expertly butchered the dead animal. Tendons, bones, intestines, hooves, head, hide, bladder and stomach had all been carefully set to one side, Mallie instructing Faith to dispose of the other organs as far away from the cave as possible in order to deter scavengers. The young girl had explained every part of the butchering process as she had cut thick slabs of meat for their meal. The stomach and bladder she intended to turn into water bags, the hooves would make glue, the tendon turned into sinew, the intestines she planned to make sausages with. Apparently Faith's kill could keep them in meat for at least a week, providing they could cure it properly and possibly get hold of some salt.

Faith thought she had an idea of how to get salt from seawater. It was something she was hoping they weren't gonna stick around long enough to actually do though. She followed Mallie to the stream, chatting companionably with the girl as they washed the intestines, bladder and stomach out. Mallie filled both organs up with fresh water when they were done, tying the ends off tightly so that the water didn't escape and the delicate membranes didn't stick together. Faith watched the bulging water bags as they returned to the camp, fascinated by the way the water inside distorted its shape.

Kay was waiting for them when they got back, a disgusted look on her face as she stared at the carcass hanging from a nearby tree, its hind legs secured by the climbing plant that no longer trailed over the cave entrance. It had proved surprisingly resilient and Faith had had to cut the plant with her knife rather than simply pull it apart. All things considered, she was grateful that she'd taken the first opportunity to sharpen her knife at Kay's inn.

While Malina staked sinews out with twigs she snapped from trees, Faith set the thick steaks Malina had cut earlier on the flat stones the younger girl had placed around the fire. The meat sizzled as she laid it out and Faith inhaled the scent of cooking meat greedily, her eyes shut as she savoured the smell. She didn't think she could remember a time when she'd ever been so hungry.

As the meat cooked, she knocked a stone out from around the fire with a stick and carefully positioned her cigarettes on top to dry out. It was completely dark now; the only light came from their fire. Exhausted, they sat in silence, waiting until their meal was ready and they could eat.

**l**

Lord Giles hadn't deigned to appear for breakfast. Sitting in the large dining room, a chattering Tiffany by his side, Jon lingered over coffee, waiting for him to appear. Finally a young teenager appeared in the doorway, her dyed black hair and dark make-up clashing with her demure school uniform uniform.

"Time for school Tiff." She said.

Tiffany sighed. "I'm coming." She looked up at Jon, her blue eyes bright. "You'll be here when I get back, right?"

"Not moving out 'til seventeen hundred." Jon smiled at her obvious confusion. "I'll be here. Have fun at school kiddo."

"Yeah, right!" Tiffany scoffed, standing. "As if." She smiled up at Giles as she passed the Head Watcher in the doorway, greeting him chirpily.

"Good morning Tiffany." Giles responded with a smile as he pulled out a chair and helped himself to tea and a newspaper.

Jon waited until all of the youngest slayers had left the room for school and Giles was halfway through his second cup before he spoke. "I'd like to see you when you've finished." He told him. "In private."

Seeing the way that several slayers pricked their ears up at that, Giles frowned at them. "Certainly." He agreed. "Shall we say my office at ten o'clock?"

"Yeah sure, you betcha." Jon said, pushing his chair back from the table. "I'll be in the gym."

Ignoring the curious glances of the other occupants of the dining room as they finished their meals, Giles sipped his tea and kept his gaze on his newspaper. Unlike them, he knew exactly why the Captain wanted to see him. His mind engaged on the upcoming meeting, he flipped through the pages of his paper without reading them as he finished his tea. The cup empty, he stood, tucking the paper under his arm to read later, and slowly walked to his office.

**l**

Their bedding had had some sort of alien tic in it. Faith grit her teeth and resisted the urge to scratch her bites as she dug another parasite out of Mallie's back with the sterilised tip of her knife. To the younger girl's credit she didn't make a sound, unlike Kay, who had bitched and moaned about every bite. Faith had bit her tongue like the good girl she wasn't and not mentioned the fact that the older woman was the one who had collected the bracken they had slept the previous night in. She hadn't been able to resist a grin however, when Mallie had innocently reminded Kay of it. The older slayer had finally shut up after that and allowed Faith to remove the rest of her tics in peace.

Digging the last tic out, she crushed the small bug between her fingernails before tapping Mallie on the shoulder and informing her that she was done. Offering her precious knife, the only blade they possessed, hilt-first to the girl, Faith turned around and stripped her black t-shirt off, submitting to the painful procedure in silence. Once Mallie had gotten all of the tics in her back, Faith took the knife off her and reheated it in the fire before starting on those on her front. She really hated this planet!

**l**

At five minutes to ten, the kitchen delivered the pots of tea and coffee and the doughnut Giles had ordered. He ate the doughnut while he waited to the Captain to arrive, carefully wiping his mouth and hands when he was finished. Pulling the book with the untranslated prophecy towards him, he found the page as soon as he opened the book. Staring down at the words as he waited for Jon to arrive, Giles tried yet again to understand their meaning. What was taking Daniel Jackson so long? Dawn had yet to make any headway in her translation either so he supposed... His internal musings broken by the sound of his door opening, Giles looked up at the furious Captain striding across his office.

Jon threw himself into a chair opposite the grey-haired man.

"That was a dirty trick you pulled last night." He slung across the desk at him.

Realising that there was little point in denying it, and hoping to diffuse the young man's anger, Giles nodded. "I didn't realise there would be that many vampires there. I am sorry." He apologised.

"You don't send men into the field unprepared!" Jon told him angrily. "That's how people die dammit!"

"But nobody did Captain, and the field changes all the time. I need to know if you're the kind of man who can cope with that because the man who can't is the man who gets the people under his command killed. Forgive me, but you are young. Running the risk of sounding condescending, I can assure you that when you get to my age you will understand. I had no way of judging how you would react in a life or death situation without putting you into one."

Clamping down on his knee-jerk reaction to tell the other man to go to hell, Jon found himself wondering if Giles knew that he had jam on his lapel.

**l**

Kay followed the stream through the dense forest, walking along its banks as she looked for Faith. The other woman had snatched up the water bag almost as soon as she had finished digging tics out of her own limbs and stalked off in the direction of the stream without a word. That had been at least an hour ago and as Malina had announced her decision to use the fawn's brains to cure its hide or something disgusting like that, Kay had decided to go in search of Faith.

The stream twisted to face the cliff edge on her left and Kay noticed Faith standing at the edge as soon as she turned to follow it. The wind was blowing the other woman's hair back from her face as she gazed out to sea, the full water bladder lying forgotten by her foot, seeping water into the ground. She turned around as Kay approached.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked her, assuming the worst.

"Nothing." Kay told her. "Malina's rubbing brains into the deer." She explained as Faith continued to look suspicious.

Faith shuddered. "Gross." She turned back to look over the vista before her once more.

Kay wasn't sure what she meant but she was fairly certain she agreed with the sentiment as she joined Faith on the cliffside. The stream tumbled over the edge between them, tumbling down the cliff to crash into a large green pool ringed with boulders in the forest below. Beyond, the ground fell steeply down to more cliffs at the coast. But that wasn't what Faith was looking at, Kay discovered as she glanced at the other woman's face.

Following Faith's line of sight, Kay spotted a huddled mass on the coastline in the distance. She squinted, her heart racing with excitement and felt herself slump as she realised that whatever it was, it was in ruins. Disappointed, she looked at Faith.

"The Stargate's slightly to the left of that tower." Faith told her, still staring at it. "The bay's over there."

She lifted an arm in the opposite direction without even looking and Kay's eyes followed her pointing finger to the distant slice of white sand almost of their own accord. It was at least five miles from where they stood and Kay looked back at the ruined tower, estimating its distance in her mind. It was another ten miles at best, she decided. She really needed to learn to swim. It was ridiculous really, getting to her age and still not knowing how.

"You're sure?" She asked.

Faith looked scornfully at her. "I noticed the tower as soon as I surfaced." She explained witheringly.

"Oh." Kay shifted awkwardly. She had been too busy panicking to notice anything until Faith had slapped her. "Any idea how-"

"Nope." Faith cut in. "I'm thinking raft," she confided after a moment's consideration. "But I wanna get a look at those ruins first."

Not for the first time, Kay found herself wondering what had happened to her inn. Determinedly, she put the thought of home behind her. "Will you teach me to swim?" She found herself asking.

"Sure." Faith agreed. "We'll drop the water bag off at the cave and then find a way down to that pool." She decided, picking up the deer stomach water bag and turning to go.

With a last glance back at the ruins in the distance, Kay followed her, her last doubts about whether or not Faith was a slayer set to rest. Anyone who could swim that far, towing her for at least half of the distance, and then hike through an overgrown forest for miles without showing any signs of exhaustion had to be a slayer. Even she had been tired by the time they had stopped.

They were cutting straight through the forest in a straight line, having left the stream far behind them. Kay didn't doubt for one moment that they were heading directly towards the cave despite not having a clue where they were. Faith hadn't been leading them in a random direction yesterday after all. She'd been taking them back to the Stargate.

**l**

Doctor Weir looked surprised to see Sam staring at her from inside a hazmat suit, blinking rapidly as she greeted her with only a hint of hesitation. Sam smiled as she returned the greeting.

"We're just taking the opportunity to run some tests." The blonde astrophysicist explained with a glance at the ZPM plugged into the off-camera DHD. "I'm transmitting the update now." She said, typing on the MALP's keyboard.

"Understood." Doctor Weir acknowledged, cocking her head slightly as she spoke into her headset. "We've received it. Sending this month's report."

"I see it," Sam said as the computer acknowledged the incoming file. "And, we've got it."

She had to hand it to Rodney, Sam thought as she caught sight of the size of the file. His data compression program just kept getting better and better.

"Well, I think that's everything." Weir said, clearly reluctant to sign off before Sam had explained what was going on. "If there's nothing else...?"

"No, that's it." Sam told her with a cheerful grin. "See you in three weeks."

The pleasant smile on Weir's face fell into an expression of shock. "Wha-" She managed to say before Sam cut the power to the Stargate.

Still smiling, Sam carefully took a dialling crystal from the MALP and crouched in front of the open DHD. Removing the DHD's dialling crystal, she replaced with the one they had brought from the SGC. Putting the crystal away, she was busy uncoupling the ZPM from the DHD's power source when a twig snapped behind her. Dropping the cables and snatching up her P-90, she twisted around to see Cam step back, his hands raised.

"Sorry." She apologised, lowering her weapon. "You startled me." She picked up the cables again and burnt her hand on the end of one. "Ahh!"

"Let me see." Cam instructed, kneeling beside her as she cradled her injured hand. "Now I'm the one who's sorry." He said, as she showed him the burn. The plastic of her hazmat glove was stuck to the edges of the raw wound. "Does this mean you're gonna have to have the serum again?"

As Sam stared at him in horror at the thought, Daniel staggered into the Stargate clearing, carefully balancing two stacked crates of heavy books. Teal'c followed behind him, carrying four crates with ease, despite the fact that he couldn't see where he was going.

"Did it work?" Daniel asked, setting the crates down at the edge of the Stargate platform.

Sam smiled. "Yes." She said triumphantly. "If you uncouple that cable there and there," She told Cam as she stood, carefully protecting her hand. "We can load up the ZPM and get out of here."

"There's four more boxes." Daniel protested, glancing longingly back at the village.

Cam frowned as the cable refused to come loose.

"Twist it the other way." Sam said helpfully as he tried a different direction.

"Jeez, Jackson, are you taking the whole damn library?" Cam asked grumpily as he obediently reversed direction. "Where the hell are you gonna put all these books anyway? Your office is already full."

"Storeroom twenty-nine, of course." Vala said, shrugging as she traipsed into the clearing, carrying three small books.

Cam frowned at the cable. "Storeroom twenty-nine?" He asked before sighing in frustration and looking up at Sam. "This isn't working."

"Which way are you going?" Sam asked and Cam showed her. She shook her head. "The other way." She said. "I told you earlier."

Cam suppressed a growl and unscrewed the coupling with two savage choking motions.

"When General O'Neill was in charge of StarGate Command, he became tired of Daniel Jackson's complaining of the books he had lost when he had been declared dead. General O'Neill instructed Daniel Jackson to draw up a list of those missing books. When he was presented with the twelve page list, he gave orders for storeroom twenty-nine to be turned into a reference room to hold them and told Daniel Jackson to leave his books to the SGC in future and shut the hell up." Teal'c smiled as he recounted the story.

"Oh... Right." Cam said slowly as he fitted the DHD panel back into place. Just another one of those SGC stories you had to be there to appreciate, he figured as he picked up the ZPM and the cables, and packed them away.

"Don't forget to tag the 'Gate for later." Sam called over to him as Teal'c and Jackson headed back to the village to pick up the rest of the crates.

Cam grabbed the electronic beacon. "I'm on it." He told her.

**l**

The full water bag was the first thing Malina noticed when she got back to the cave from the stream. There was no sign of Faith or Kay so she assumed that they were staying out of the way until she had finished preparing the deerskin for tanning. She really wished she had some salt. A spade would have been nice too. She had just spent a long time digging a very muddy hole big enough for the skin beside the stream with nothing more than the shoulder blades of the dead fawn. It was not an experience she wanted to repeat. Now all she had to do was mix the animal's brains with the water in the hole and leave its skin to soak until tomorrow. Then she really should do something about lunch.

Deep down Malina knew that she was focussing too much on keeping herself busy in an effort not to think about the possibility of having to live the rest of her life on the planet. Faith would find a way to get them off. Malina forced herself to believe that no matter how impossible the task might seem, the Tau'ri slayer would find a way to accomplish it. She had to. Because the alternative... Where _was_ that deer's head?

**l**

Andrew stood in the middle of his room, surrounded by just about every item of clothing he owned. How was he supposed to know what to pack if Buffy and Giles wouldn't tell him where they were sending him? It wasn't fair. Jool knew. And Xander and Willow and Oz. But nobody was telling him. He knew they were sending him to some military base because Captain O'Neil was taking them there. He didn't even know if the other man was staying with them! If he had to guess, he'd say yes, because Buffy wouldn't have sent him out patrolling otherwise.

He really didn't want to go to Iraq. It was hot and dusty and people fired guns at you. Giles would tell him if it was Iraq. Wouldn't he? Andrew wished he knew where they were going. Not aloud of course, that could be bad.

It all had something to do with Faith breaking up with Robin and disappearing but nobody who knew anything was talking. Even Kennedy was keeping quiet. The rumour mill was working overtime and Andrew had heard every theory from a return to the Dark Side to alien abduction. The Russian slayer, Olga, had even had the crazy idea that Faith had gone through the Stargate. He'd quickly squashed _that_ rumour. However, once the thought was with him it had proved harder to dismiss. He _so_ didn't want to go to Iraq!

It couldn't be the Stargate. They would have told him. Maybe Captain O'Neil was taking them to Riley? Andrew knew all about Buffy's army ex-boyfriend and the Initiative. But why would Riley be hunting Faith? From a military base? That didn't sound right. Buffy would blow a fuse if that was the case.

Glancing at his watch, Andrew began to panic. Hot weather clothes? Or cold? Should he take his Armani dinner jacket?

**l**

After another large meal of deer steak, the carcass was looking considerably reduced. Eyeing it critically, Malina mentally revised her original optimistic estimate. They would need to hunt again either tomorrow or the next day. Keeping one ear on Faith and Kay as they bickered about whether or not the fruit they had found was poisonous, the young girl began to tidy up the small area they had set up camp in. Finishing, she sat back down as Faith ended the argument by snatching up one of the grey fruits and biting deeply into it. Juice dribbled down her chin and the dark-haired slayer wiped it off with the back of her wrist.

"Tastes like a plum." She mumbled around the mouthful. Swallowing, she examined the fruit closely. "No stone." She noticed.

"Where did you go?" Malina asked the others, slightly envious of their time away from the cave.

As Kay described the pool and waterfall, Malina noticed Faith withdraw, staring moodily into the fire. Stretching as she sat, the Tau'ri slayer reached into her pocket and pulled out her cigarettes. As Kay told Malina about the ruins in the distance, Faith shook out a cigarette, replacing the box in her pocket and pulling out her lighter.

Absently lighting her cigarette as she stared deep into the flames, Faith failed to notice the way Kay trailed off, staring at her in amazement. Lost in her own world, she brooded as she smoked.

The zat couldn't fell trees and neither could her knife. Faith had a nasty feeling that she needed the Jaffa staff weapon on the ocean bed, which meant putting off work on the raft until the day after next at best. It was too late to be able to get to the ruined castle, dive down for the staff and get back before dark. Whether or not the staff would still work was a hurdle she'd cross when she had it in her hands.

Only when Faith had ground the smouldering butt beneath her heel did the silence obtrude into her thoughts. Looking around at the other two, Faith laughed aloud at the look of wondering horror on Kay's face.

**l**

Deep in the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain, General Landry didn't bother to look up at the sharp knock on his door. Keeping his head bent over the latest batch of paperwork associated with the day-to-day running of a top-secret military base, he barked out an order to enter.

"You wanted to see me sir?" His second-in-command asked as he entered the room.

"Ah, Mitchell, yes. Come in." The General said unnecessarily, finally looking up as the Colonel closed the door behind him. "I trust your arrangements for your trip to the Pegasus galaxy are in order?"

Mitchell nodded. "Yes sir. Colonel Emerson and I spoke before they left earlier. We'll rendezvous with the Odyssey tomorrow on P3R-594 to collect the 'Gate for Carter's wormhole jump."

"Mmm." General Landry nodded his approval of the plan. "What time?" He asked.

"We're scheduled to leave at fourteen hundred hours. Teal'c' leaving for Dakara at fourteen ten."

"Good, good." The General nodded again before he mentioned the unspoken elephant in the room. "SG-13 arrive at nine hundred tomorrow."

"Yes sir." They've been assigned offices and quarters and SG-12 will take over their 'Gate training while we're gone." Mitchell paused. "Do we know who she's sending yet?"

The General frowned. "General O'Neill won't tell me."

"General O'Neill?"

"Mmm, the President appointed him as Miss Summers' liaison." Landry explained. "No doubt it's his idea of a joke."

"The President, sir?"

"Jack O'Neill."

**l**

Jon was the first person to arrive in the foyer. Dressed in jeans and a plain grey t-shirt, a rucksack containing the few possessions he had managed to accumulate during his brief stay slung over his shoulder, he looked like any other teenaged man as he sat down on the broad stairs. He ran through their travel arrangements in his head as he waited. It would be tight but they should make it.

"Jon!" Tiffany's voice came from above him and he turned as the twelve-year-old slayer ran lightly down the steps. "When are you leaving?" She asked, sitting down on the stair next to him and tugging her short skirt down a few millimetres.

Jon checked his watch. "Ten minutes."

"Are you coming back?"

"I don't think so kiddo, no."

Tiffany slumped, disappointed by the news she had already guessed. "I got you something." She told him, passing him the small box. "So you don't forget me."

"You didn't have to do that." Jon told her. "I'm not gonna forget you in a hurry."

"Open it!" Tiffany urged, beaming at him.

Complying, Jon stared in puzzlement at the dog-tags nestled inside the jewellery box. Why had she bought him another set of tags? He noticed that she'd even got his serial number right.

"They're to help keep the vampires away." Tiffany explained, flipping them over to show him the crosses engraved on the reverse.

Touched, Jon thanks her as he swopped them with his old tags. "I didn't get you anything." He confessed. "I know, how 'bout I send you something from the States? How 'bout a case of Twinkies?"

"Say yes." Xander advised, overhearing their conversation as he walked down the stairs behind them. "Hey Jon. Ready to spend eight hours in a plane with Andrew?"

Jon groaned. "Try fifteen." He corrected as Xander bounded past them.

"Ouch." Xander winced in sympathy. "Flying straight there from JFK?"

"Helicopter to McGuire Air Base and then a flight to Peterson." Jon explained, looking past the one-eyed man to the open door behind him. "Hey."

Oz smiled and nodded back at him as he entered the council building, a large hiking rucksack on his back. Jon checked his watch again as Willow and the dark-haired slayer who was her lover drifted into the room from a hallway leading into the house. Five minutes.

The elevator arrived at the same time as the punctual black London cab, disgorging Buffy and Giles in the foyer. As the grown-ups made polite conversation, Tiffany skipped outside to tell the taxi-driver to wait. She recognised the red hair in the corner of her eye immediately but acted as though she hadn't, rushing back up the steps and into the house. Quickly crossing the hall, she sat back down next to Jon.

"Jool's here." She told him.

Jon looking up, spotting the woman as she opened the taxi's door to stow her suitcase inside. Getting up, he went to go help her. Scratching her ribcage, Tiffany watched him go. Lace itched, she decided, glancing down at her chest. At least the socks she'd stuffed into the bra looked natural. Jon hadn't seemed to notice them though.

"Careful." Jool warned the Captain as he reached for the last suitcase left on the pavement. "It's heavy."

Jon wheezed as he picked it up, wishing he hadn't given into his macho impulse. Getting the edge of the suitcase up onto the floor of the cab, he pushed it forward to join the three others. Slamming the door shut, he dusted off his hands. "Lemme guess... make-up?"

"Weapons." Jool told him as they entered the Council building. "I just stuck to the basics really. Knife, sword, axe, crossbow, morning star..." She turned to Giles. "Is it true there's a troll hammer in the cellar?"

Buffy popped up beside Jon. "You can't take it." She told the other slayer. "It's mine."

"A _troll_-hammer?" Jon had to ask.

Buffy nodded. "Yup." She shrugged. "It used to belong to one of Anya's exes."

Jon listened to the story with interest. It wasn't until Buffy had finished the tale with the vanquishing of the troll to the land of trolls, that he looked around the room again and then at his watch. Andrew was late. There was one in every team, he reminded himself in an attempt to soothe his own impatience. Glancing at his watch again, he allowed himself to be drawn into a conversation with Xander about the general goodness of American snacks. As the two were hotly debating the merits of Twinkies and Ho-Ho's (with Tiffany making a determined case for the supremacy of the Jaffa Cake) the elevator door slid open to reveal a teetering stack of boxes and suitcases.

"Hold that elevator!" Andrew shouted as he charged down the stairs.

Oz, closest to the small elevator, stuck a leg out over the door. Eyeing the pile in dismay, Jon sighed. They were gonna need another taxi.

As Tiffany was dispatched to ask the driver to radio for another cab, the rest of the room sprang into action. With everyone grabbing whatever they could carry, the elevator soon emptied. Handing a large box and his rucksack over to Buffy, who loaded into the taxi, Jon stepped back onto the sidewalk next to Oz. He noticed that the short man was still wearing his pack on his back.

"Got everything?" He asked, looking pointedly at the backpack.

Oz nodded. "Everything I own."

"Really?" Jon asked, not sure if he was impressed or not. Oz nodded again. "Huh."

The taxi loaded with their belongings, the group milled about on the pavement, waiting for the second cab to show up. Before long, it was pulling up at the kerb, the cue for a rush to make their goodbyes. Straightening as he turned back from instructing the first taxi-driver to meet them at the airport, Jon jumped when he realised a stony-faced Xander was standing just centimetres away.

"Just so you know," Xander told him as the taxi behind Jon drove away. His eye flickered over to Jool as she got into the second cab. "If you hurt her, I'll beat you to death with a shovel."

Jon believed him. He was giving serious thought to edging away and hiding in the taxi when the suddenly scary man smiled.

"Take care O'Neil."

Jon watched the other man as he strolled over to say goodbye to Andrew. Just how much did he know? Making his way over to the waiting cab, he stopped when Buffy called his name. He wondered how much Xander had shared as the petite blonde approached.

"I just wanted to say..." Buffy paused, looking up at him as she struggled to find the right words.

"Good luck?" Jon asked hopefully.

"Find her." Buffy corrected him.

"I will." Jon found himself promising.

Buffy nodded. "Good luck."

"...And don't forget to wrap up warm in winter..." Willow realised that she was babbling again and blushed. "It was good to see you again."

"You too." Oz told her as she hugged him.

Trying to ignore the way her scent curled around them, he looked up into the possessive eyes of her lover. Did Willow know how jealous the other woman was of her? It was too late for much to warn her now. He had to try though.

"Be careful." He told her with a significant look.

Missing his meaning entirely, Willow nodded. "Always."

Jostled by Andrew as he got into the car behind him, Oz looked back at the taxi. "Gotta go." He said to Willow with a rueful smile.

"Bye Jon." Tiffany choked on a sob and flung her arms around him. "Don't die!" She said fiercely into his t-shirt.

Exchanging long-suffering looks with Oz over Andrew's head as the younger man pelted them with questions about their destination, Jool was not looking forward to spending the next few hours trapped in a small metal container with him. Staring out of the window, she waited impatiently for Captain O'Neil to finish saying goodbye to Tiffany, her fingers unconsciously stroking the dressing on her throat. Finally, the young girl stepped away from him and he got in the cab.

"We good to go?" He asked them as he sat down.

"Go _where_?" Andrew whined plaintively as Oz nodded and Jool murmured a quiet yes.

"London City Airport." Jon told the cab-driver.

**l**

Vala was rifling through his desk when Daniel got back to his office after dinner. Sighing impatiently, he shooed her away, asking her what she wanted in a brusque tone as he straightened the few papers left on it, mostly instructions for his department in his absence.

"Have you seen my notebook?" She asked. "You know, the one you gave me."

"I think I packed it." He told her. "Sorry, it's onboard the Odyssey now. Was it important?"

"Oh, no. It's okay." Vala said, tracing a pattern on the top of his desk as she perched on the edge. "I was just at a loose end..."

"Why don't you go bug Teal'c." Daniel suggested, pulling a stack of photos of a monolith on P2R-6NY towards him.

He _had_ to get his backlog cleared before they left. Hmmm, interesting. What had SG-6 discovered this time? Busy scribbling the translation onto the pad of paper under his hand, he didn't notice when Vala left.

**l**

Faith waited until after dinner to announce her intention to travel to the ruined castle the next day. Malina's stopped as she reached out for one of the carefully scrubbed bones they had been using as plates earlier and Kay turned around to looked at her, a stick she had been about to add to the fire in one hand. Realising she was in earnest, they stopped what they were doing and sat back down.

"Why?" Malina asked.

"Because zats don't fell trees and the Stargate came from there." Faith told her. "We need the staff weapon and I might find some clue as to why this damn place is deserted while I'm there.

Kay frowned. "You're going to swim there?"

"I was gonna hike overland." Faith said, shaking her head. "Then I was gonna climb down the cliff an' go divin' for a bit."

"But why do we need to fell trees?"

Understanding what Faith meant, Kay explained the other woman's idea about a raft to Malina. The blonde girl nodded thoughtfully.

"It is a good idea." She said approvingly. "I do not think that the staff will be damaged by its time on the ocean floor."

"Me neither." Kay agreed. "Do we have enough food for tomorrow?"

Malina considered the deer carcass. "I think I can make it stretch. We can have the dried meat for lunch along the way."

"Hey, who said you guys were coming?" Faith interrupted their plan-making. "It could be dangerous. Besides, Kay can't swim properly and do you really wanna leave your brain stew Mallie?"

"Of course we're coming." Kay told her in a no-nonsense tone.

"Where you go, I go." Malina reminded Faith stoutly. "I can take the hide with us."

Sighing, Faith gave in. She hadn't really expected to be able to dissuade them and so didn't bother to try any harder. She would be glad of the company really, even if it didn't fit with her image. Faith was acutely aware of how alone they were and of the lack of medical facilities. If anything went wrong, they were on their own. Their best chance of surviving was to stick together.

**l**

"Try to get some sleep." Jon advised after take-off as they settled into their seats onboard the VC-130 that would fly them to Peterson Air Base. "We've got to report to the base shortly after we land."

"What base?" Andrew asked.

Jon ignored him, setting his seat back as far as it would go and closing his eyes. Oz quickly followed his example and so the young man turned his attention to Jool.

"What base?"

She was already asleep. Seething with curiosity, Andrew looked around the military plane with disbelief as the people around him fell asleep, determined to stay awake until someone told him just where they were taking him.

**l**

He could see the Mind-Melder, hooked up to various machines, through the open door of Sam's office. Sticking his head through the door, he looked around for the blonde scientist. Not seeing her, Cam frowned.

"Knock, knock." He said. "Sam?"

Sam's head popped up from behind a large monitor. "Hi Cam." She yawned, her hair rumpled and crease lines imprinted on her right cheek. She checked her watch and blinked at the time. Surely it wasn't that late?

"Hey." Cam greeted, entering her office. "Any news?" He asked, tipping his head back at the Mind-Melder.

"About what? Oh! No, sorry." Sam grimaced. "There's been no change. Nothing to indicate why you weren't affected by the parasite." She ran her hand over her face, staring at the computer screen in front of her. "I was just working on the yield calculations for the jump." She sighed and the air lifted her fringe. She needed a haircut before they left.

Cam frowned. "It's two o'clock in the morning." He pointed out. "Any work you do now you're just gonna have to check again anyway. Get some sleep."

Sam started to shut her computer down. He was right; she was too tired to work now. She'd have the whole trip to Atlantis to work on the calculations. Atlantis. Sam couldn't wait to see it. The city of the Ancients. She'd seen the footage the expedition had sent back and longed to see it for herself. She couldn't even begin to imagine how excited Daniel must be.

**l**

Faith woke after a restless night just as the sky began to lighten. Too on edge to try to sleep any further, she got up and walked to the entrance of the cave. The fire had gone out overnight and she busied herself by rebuilding it. When a small fire was burning happily in their fireplace, she carved some more bits off Bambi and set them to cook on the stones ringing the fire. The smell of cooking meat drove Mallie and Kay out of the cave while she was refilling the water-bags at the stream and they had turned the meat over by the time she got back.

The small snippets of conversation the three exchanged over their meal were only enough to show that none of them were morning people. When she had finished her breakfast, Faith tipped the contents of the water-bags over the fire. Satisfied that the blaze was completely out, she trudged to the stream to refill the water-bags for their journey. Mallie came with her, carrying their bone plates. Once she had rinsed them she stacked the plates on the bank and turned her attention to the hide soaking in the pool she had dug the day before.

Scooping the hide out with a stick, she washed it clean in the fast-running stream and enlisted Faith's aid to wring it out. Using the stick again, Malina pushed the thin wall of earth separating the pool from the stream into the stream so that the water would wash the pool clean while they were gone. Picking the plates up, Malina walked back to the cave with Faith.

They left the fawn's carcass and the plates behind at the cave and together the three slayers set off through the forest towards the distant ruins.

**l**

It was already light when Jool stumbled down the steps of the airplane. Fortunately, Oz was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs and managed to catch her. As Jool thanked him, her face bright red with embarrassment as the short man set her back on her feet; Jon appeared the airplane door, setting large aviator sunglasses in place on his face. Lightly bounding down the steps, he joined them on the tarmac of the runway.

"Breakfast?" He suggested.

Jool and Oz looked at one another in silent consultation.

"Have we got time?" Jool asked Jon.

Jon shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. "We had a good tailwind." He said. "Should have time to hit the canteen before we have to move out."

"Cool." Oz picked up his pack and looked around with a frown. "Where's Andrew?"

**l**

They paused on the edge of the tree line for their first unimpeded look at the ruins since they had set out. The dark stones must once have been an imposing sight. No more though. The relentless erosion of the cliff on which the castle stood had worn away the stone over the ages, undermining the castle until gradually it began to slide into the sea. More and more of the castle had been eroded over time and now it was a ruin of its former self.

There was no way to tell how much of the castle had been destroyed as they set off across the grassland towards a large gateway. More of the vines that had grown over the entrance to their cave covered its walls, creeping up to the bright sky. The closer they got the more desolate the castle looked, huddled over the cliffs as the hungry sea ate away at it.

Weeds straggled over the stone steps leading up to the long crumbled castle door. Passing under the stone arch, Faith shivered at the sudden drop in temperature. The entrance led on to a stone courtyard. Long abandoned, trees heaved their way past the granite flagstones, leaving the large stones tumbling around their base. Weeds grew everywhere but especially around a crumbling well in the centre of the courtyard. Wild birds took flight, panicked by their arrival.

**l**

Jon strode into the canteen and looked around. Isolated by a wide band of empty tables, Jool and Oz sat in the middle of the large room eating their breakfasts. Somehow, Jool had found the time to change into a buttercup yellow skirt suit made of some shiny raw looking fabric. As Jon approached, he noticed that Oz had changed into a t-shirt advertising a band called 'Dingoes Ate My Baby'. It was no wonder the personnel stationed at Peterson were choosing to their distance from the pair. Not that Jon fit in any better in the tailored dress uniform Jack had had waiting for him.

"Car's waiting for us." He told them, tugging at his too-tight tie.

"Andrew?" Oz asked, taking one last bite of sausage.

"Sleeping like a baby in the back."

Oz nodded, standing as Jool greedily gulped her coffee. Still drinking, the slayer stood and finished the cup. Dabbing the edges of her wide mouth with a handkerchief she tucked back into a small cream purse, Jool nodded.

"Let's go." She said.

**l**

Moving through the deserted corridors, Faith noticed half-obscured boot-prints in the dust thickly coating the stone floors. She said nothing about them to the two slayers shadowing her every move. They were old, and she had no way of telling how long it had been since they were made. Instead she followed the footprints to a junction and then chose the corridor she knew would take them to the cliff's edge.

The footprints led to a small flight of stairs and there for the first time, on one of the steps, Faith spotted a distinctive Earth-manufactured tread to one of the boot-prints. Her heart suddenly light, she bounded up the steps, a ridiculously large grin on her face, and came to a sudden halt on the threshold of what must once have been a large room in the centre of the castle.

If Faith had to guess, she'd say that this used to be the 'Gateroom. Now only about twelve feet of the room remained from the doorway in which Faith stood, Mallie and Kay peering over her shoulders. The grin long gone, Faith walked to the edge of the cliff and craned her neck over the edge to look upwards.

There were no rooms above them, which was good. It meant that their chances of getting hit by falling debris while they were working on the seabed below were smaller. Speaking of the sea...

Faith swivelled to look down the cliff and felt the ground beneath her feet drop away and her stomach lurch. Carefully, she stepped back from the edge, bile rising in her throat as her head swam.

Fuck, she hated heights! Faith continued to back away as Mallie and Kay came forward to take her place at the cliff edge. Ever since she'd woken up in hospital after taking a dive off the roof of her apartment block almost a year before, the smallest height made her feel dizzy and weak. Mostly she just pushed herself past it but damn that was a long drop! Sucking in air, she kept her eyes on the distant horizon.

"Perhaps we could climb down?" Malina suggested to Kay.

The two slayers looked at each other as they stood on the cliff edge, considering the possibility. Suddenly a dark blur flashed between them and Faith dove over the edge of the cliff, her body arcing out into a graceful curve before she straightened and plunged into the blue waters below.

A hand grabbed the back of Malina's collar as she prepared to throw herself after the other slayer. Startled, Malina looked back at Kay.

"Oh no you don't." The older woman told Malina, giving her a slight shake before she let her go.

**l**

Sat next to the window, Jool gazed out unseeing. Under normal circumstances, she'd be eagerly watching the street as they passed by, busy analysing the differences between this strange new country and her own but today her mind was more concerned with their destination. Although she had already been fully briefed on the Stargate Program she couldn't imagine what it would be like to work there. What would a secret base buried under a mountain look like? How did the personnel who didn't go off-world cope with the lack of natural light? And aliens! The species Jon had talked about all sounded fascinating and Jool couldn't wait to review the SGC's own files on them. The Captain's aftershave tickled her sensitive nose and she sneezed explosively, reaching for her hankie.

He looked seriously sexy in his full dress uniform. No! Bad Jool! Didn't the military have rules against this kind of thing? Good rules. Rules that were obviously in place for a reason. Still, her fingers itched to straighten his tie. Or would it be too mumsy?

Oh God. Jool's fingers fluttered to her flat tummy and she swallowed convulsively. She couldn't be pregnant. She just couldn't. Sure, once she'd hit twenty and hadn't been Called she'd started making vague nebulous plans. But the destruction of Sunnydale had put paid to those hazy far-off plans and besides, she'd always been happily married to the man in her dreams when her imaginary children arrived. A one-night stand with a man six years younger than herself who was going to be in charge of her top-secret military team was so not how she'd pictured her children being conceived.

Would they let her stay on the team if she was pregnant? What if they found out that it was Jon's? What would they do to him? Involuntarily she glanced at him, suddenly afraid.

Jon could feel Jool looking at him but he ignored her. He had bigger problems to worry about just now. Had Jack told the others that he was coming? He hadn't seen them since before Jack had dropped him off at school all those years ago. He'd asked all of them not to contact him, explaining that he had to make an entirely new life now. He just hadn't expected them to take him at his word. Now, after three long years, he was going to see them again. Would they still look at him with pity in their eyes?

He knew Jack wasn't there any more. Hank Landry was in charge of the SGC now and Cameron Mitchell headed up SG-1. Teal'c, Daniel, Carter and everyone else who made the SGC home were still there though. Jack had assured him that his background would remain classified, but Jon wondered how long that would last once they were there. Gossip was always rife in the close confines of the base and many of the people still stationed there would remember him as Jack O'Neill's clone. Could he rely on them all to keep the scuttlebutt to a minimum? He snorted derisively. Yeah, right!

Beside him, Oz shifted slightly in his seat and Jon found himself making unfavourable comparisons between his old team and his new. Yeah, they could fight, some better than others, but they were all civilians and inclined to ignore his orders and do their own thing. He knew from experience that there were times when a civilian had to be picked up and thrown through the 'Gate for their own good. Now he had three of them to look out for. They didn't function as a team at all and Andrew still had to be told where they were going. Jon was _not_ looking forward to the young Watcher's reaction.

Staring at his black fingernails, Oz fidgeted uncomfortably. Beside him, his face pressed up against the glass window, Andrew snored, oblivious to the world sliding by. The car powered up the mountain, heading for NORAD. Heavy tendrils of fear wrapped themselves around his lungs, tightening his chest. Oz shifted again. Maybe that last bite of sausage hadn't been such a good idea.

Memories of the last time he had entered a military base flashed before his eyes and he forced the wolf to remain passive, breathing deeply to centre and calm himself. This time he would be a member of the top-secret project, not its guinea pig. Oz picked at his nail polish, deliberately turning his thoughts to the screwed-up slayer who'd turned up in Sunnydale his second senior year.

Not that they'd seen how messed-up she was. They'd been too young and wrapped up in dealing with their own problems when Faith had arrived. They'd ignored her, ostracized her and finally condemned her way before she killed the Deputy Mayor. In hindsight, it was no wonder she'd turned to the dark side, even if Oz still couldn't figure out what she'd seen in the creepy Mayor. He'd been in Tibet when she'd woken up from her coma but Willow had filled him once he'd got back. He'd swung by LA on his way back out of the country and taken the time to go visit. A more awkward twenty minutes had probably never been spent on a phone. Not speaking.

So that was it. The sole extent of his contact with Faith. Why Willow wanted him to help look for her, he didn't know. She said it was because of his computer skills but Oz couldn't break into the SGC's mainframe. He knew because he'd already tried. Nevertheless, Willow had asked and, like a fool, he had agreed. Agreed to voluntarily enter a military base. As if the last time didn't still give him nightmares.

All of Andrew's dreams were coming true. Captain Kirk had personally picked him to accompany him down to the peaceful planet below on a routine trading mission. As Andrew stepped onto the transporter beam array he could feel the envious eyes of everyone in the room on him. Stepping into place, he tugged at his shirt, glancing down as he clasped his hands behind his back.

Panic filled him as Scotty activated the transporter beam. Andrew's shirt was red!


	8. Learning Curve

**Author's Note:**

I was planning on writing a bit more and getting the whole of SG-13's first week at the SGC done before I posted this but hey, it's my birthday... Have a present!

Congratulations to DonSample for being the first person to realise that Faith and company are stranded on Ernest Littlefield's planet.

**Learning Curve**

The Stargate was deeper than she remembered. Now that she was swimming down to it, Faith could see that the crevice she had taken for a natural crack in the seabed was actually a thin gap between two massive blocks of stone. The seabed was littered with fallen debris from the castle above. Silvery fish swam through the Stargate and then darted for cover as she swam closer with powerful strokes. Reaching the top of the Stargate, Faith grasped it with both hands and swam upwards as hard as she could.

Nothing happened, but then she hadn't really expected it to. The Stargate was wedged tight. Her lungs screaming for oxygen, she let go of the 'Gate and swam down to the seafloor. Grabbing the staff weapon with one hand, Faith kicked off from the seabed, heading up towards the surface.

Kay let out a breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding as Faith's dark head appeared on the ocean's surface. A split-second later she nearly pitched over the edge of the cliff as Malina slammed into her. Quickly, she pulled the both of them back from the drop as Mallie hugged her tight, squealing loudly in her ear. Hushing her, she calmed the girl down, her mind working quickly as she saw the staff Faith raised over her head in triumph.

"How's she going to climb back up the cliff?" She asked Malina.

**l**

Oh my God! This was so cool!! He, Andrew Wells, was actually inside NORAD. He'd been roughly shaken awake by Oz as their car reached the first in a long series of checkpoints. As they drove along the long and twisting road between that checkpoint and the tunnel entrance, Andrew had been too busy staring at all the soldiers and weapons to ask any questions. It wasn't until the tunnel with Cheyenne Mountain written above it came into sight that he had even realised where they were. When the others ignored his questions, he turned to their military escort instead, throwing question after excited question at the two Airmen, barely giving them time to try to answer before he moved onto his next request for information. Barely pausing to compare the large blast door to several different comic book bases as they passed through it, Andrew kept up the rapid-fire questioning as they followed their guides inside the base.

Oz tuned him out, concentrating on memorising the various twists and turns in the white corridors so that he could find his way back out. The traffic in the hallways gradually tailed off as they worked their way deeper into the base until a passer-by was a rare event. They turned a corner and Oz craned for a glimpse of yet another checkpoint in the middle of the corridor.

A bored-looking guard slouched there, watching a woman as she put her hand on a green pad. He nodded at her and she passed through the checkpoint. While Jool and Oz were still looking at each other to see who would go first and Andrew was busy peppering their fresh-faced escorts with questions they didn't know the answers to, Jon stepped smoothly up to the checkpoint and placed his right hand on the hand-scanner.

Thanks to the wonders of Asgard cloning technology and the absence of Jack O'Neill's physical scars, he was quickly nodded through the checkpoint.

Waiting for the rest of his team on the other side, Jon finally realised why his return to the SGC felt so anti-climatic. It wasn't so much Andrew's incessant questions but that was admittedly, a large part of it. It was everything. The escort, Jool, Oz. It wasn't like the old days.

Their escort left them in the tender care of a marine and began to retrace their steps as SG-13's new guide led them to the first elevator. Other than a brief appalled look at Jon when Andrew first started to ask him questions, the stony-faced Marine maintained a grim silence through-out the elevator ride.

Still searching for answers, Andrew turned to Jon as they waited to clear yet another checkpoint at the end of the elevator ride. As the doors of the second elevator closed on the small group, the Marine turned to Jon and finally broke his silence.

"I can shoot him if you want."

Ignoring the way Andrew squeaked and tried to hide behind Jool, Jon thanked the Corporal and politely declined his offer. It wasn't Andrew's fault that he didn't have a clue what was going on around him. Jon had taken the decision to limit the potential fall-out involved with briefing the young man by waiting until they were safely inside the SGC. Just because he was now regretting that decision didn't mean it wasn't the right one. Besides, he really wanted to see the kid's face when he saw a real Stargate for the first time.

**l**

Okay, maybe she hadn't thought this all the way through. Faith clung to the cliff with one hand, holding the staff weapon in the other. The muscles in her limbs burned as she pushed herself further away from the cliff to try and get a better look up the cliff. Giving up on the attempt, she eased her body back in to the rock wall as she cast about for the next hand or foothold. Bracing her foot on a rocky bulge near her left knee and perfectly balancing the staff weapon in her hand, Faith lunged upwards, aiming for a small ledge three feet above her head.

Her hand closed over the lip of the edge and her other hand came up to deposit the staff weapon on the ledge. Faith scrabbled to find a foothold for her right leg, eventually finding one that was uncomfortably high but gave her the boost she needed to heave herself over the edge of the ledge.

It was just big enough for her to sit down, provided that she held the staff weapon in her lap. Faith sighed as she looked out to sea, her legs dangling over the edge as she wondered what to do next. Where the hell were Mallie and Kay? They'd been standing on the cliff edge when she'd surfaced but the next time she'd looked for them they had disappeared. She couldn't climb the cliff with the staff weapon in her hand. Not quickly enough anyway. She probably could manage but she knew that it would be a gruelling climb. She'd only managed about, Faith leaned over the edge to check, twenty feet. Only another few hundred to go. Faith swore, fluently and at great length.

She was about halfway through a particularly inventive phrase involving the ancestors of the people who'd decided a cliff was a good place to build a castle and a Chihuahua when she was interrupted by a distant shout.

"About fucking time!" She roared. "Where the hell have you been?"

Pebbles rained down on her in answer and Faith cursed again, ducking. Dodging the occasional stone, she peered up the cliff. She still couldn't see Mallie or Kay, the cliff was too steep for that, but she felt better just knowing that they were there. Faith squinted as she saw something slithering down the cliff towards her. She grabbed for the knotted vine as it came closer, noticing that it was already tied so that she could just slip the staff weapon through two loops.

"Got it!" She shouted.

"Get on." Came the distant reply.

Shrugging away her misgivings, Faith complied, sitting in the middle of the staff weapon and holding tightly on to the central knot the two loops were tied with. Slowly she began to ascend the cliff, using her legs to keep herself away from the cliff-face. She really hoped they'd tied the knots tightly.

The leaves they hadn't taken the time to remove tore away from the vines as they hauled Faith up the cliff, leaving Malina and Kay's hands coated with a sticky sap. It actually helped them to get a better grip on the thin central stem. As they worked in silence, Malina couldn't help but be grateful that she'd taken to wearing Faith's knife since she'd butchered the fawn.

Finally they got a glimpse of Faith as she swung away from a large rocky outcrop and Malina grinned and hauled harder. More rapidly now the gap between them began to close until finally, Malina was reaching down to grasp Faith's outstretched hand and, in seconds, the wet slayer was standing with them on the cliff-side.

"Thanks." Faith gasped as her legs finally stopped wobbling underneath her.

"It was Kay's idea." Mallie said, beaming at the short-haired woman. "I just helped."

Kay shrugged, looking awkward. "We were just lucky Mallie had the knife." She said.

"Thank you." Faith told her again, just in case she hadn't got the message the first time.

**l**

Miraculously, Andrew's silence lasted all the way to the Briefing Room. Privately, Jon thought that Corporal Trigger-Happy's continued presence as they stood in the large room, waiting for General Landry to join them, might have something to do with that. Not that he cared. At this point, it was a case of whatever worked. Jon turned around as the General's door opened and a clearly unhappy and frustrated Hank Landry strode out, closely followed by Colonel Cameron Mitchell.

Jon snapped off a salute, coming to attention. "Captain Jonathon O'Neil, reporting for duty, sir!"

"At ease." Hank growled, stalking straight past him without even looking at him. "Dismissed Corporal."

Mitchell sat on the General's right so Jon took the chair on Hank's left. Noticing the way Andrew's mouth opened as Corporal Trigger-Happy left the room, he glared at the young man. Suitably cowed, Andrew hurriedly sat down next to him. Oz took the seat next to him and Jool went for the one next to Mitchell. Hank set a pile of dossiers on the table and Jon's heart sank as he recognised the one on top.

General Landry looked at each member of SG-13 in turn. Jon wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved at the lack of recognition in his eyes as he looked at him.

"Welcome to the SGC." Hank told them.

"What does SGC mean?" Andrew asked before the General had a chance to continue.

Catching the familiar sounds of Walter dialling the 'Gate drifting up from the Control Room as Hank frowned at Andrew, Jon grinned evilly. "It might be easier to just show him, sir." He suggested.

Hank frowned at him then and Jon tried his best to smile reassuringly back. The General's hand moved under the table and slowly, the lowered blast shield began to rise. Jon stood as soon as Hank moved, heading for the window before the shield had even finished opening, eager for his first glimpse of the Stargate in years.

More slowly, Andrew and the other members of SG-13 followed him. Andrew gasped as soon as he caught sight of the Stargate, pressing his face up against the glass.

"But... but..."He managed as the sixth chevron lit up. "It's in Iraq!"

The seventh chevron clamped down into place and with a plume of rushing water, the Stargate activated. Andrew staggered back from the window, gibbering incoherently as the event horizon fell back into a rippling pool in the centre of the Stargate.

"Iraq?" Mitchell asked.

"Conspiracy theory." Jon told him, still staring greedily at the open Stargate. "The _real_ Wormhole X-Treme Stargate is apparently in Iraq." He turned around to face the room as the unfamiliar team below walked through the 'Gate. "General Landry, meet Andrew Wells. Wormhole X-Treme's number two fan."

Andrew had been extremely vocal about just missing the number one spot during the long, long flight to JFK. Payback was a bitch.

"Huyba...flergit." Andrew jabbered at Hank before turning to Jon with pleading eyes. "Tremonde?"

"No." Jon shook his head patiently. "Laan-dry."

"Tremonde." Andrew insisted.

"Tremonde?" Hank asked.

"The General on Wormhole X-Treme." Jool explained before realising what she had just said. "I didn't know that yesterday. Damn you!"

"No Tremonde?"

Ignoring Andrew's piteous whimper, Jool held out her hand to General Landry as she sat back down at the conference table. "Doctor Julie Wilson." She introduced herself. "Slayer."

"Pleased to meet you." The General told her as he shook her hand. Turning to Oz as the pink-haired man sat back down, he frowned slightly. "You must be Daniel Osbourne."

Oz nodded at him and the General's frown increased a notch. Andrew jumped as the Stargate disengaged and scuttled back to his seat, his eyes wide and wild. Jon followed him, sitting back down next to Hank.

"And... Captain Jonathon O'Neil." Hank said, flipping the first dossier open.

"One l." Jon said quickly.

"I see that Captain." Hank told him. "In fact, your name and serial number are the only things in your file that aren't blacked out." Hank held the dossier out so that they could all see, staring at Jon as he did so.

Jon stared calmly back at him. "It's classified."

"Even your date of birth?" Mitchell asked.

"I hold the highest level of clearance." Hank told him. "What could possibly be in there that I can't see?"

"It's nothing personal, sir." Jon said. "I can count the number of people who have the necessary clearance to read the uncensored version on one hand and still have fingers to spare." He frowned. "I'm not even sure if I can read it."

Hank snorted disbelievingly and closed Jon's file, moving it to the side and opening the next. "Mr Osbourne." He said, looking at him. "I don't suppose you'd care to explain the censored portions of your file?"

Oz stared blankly back at the General. He had a file? The military had a file? On him?

"I didn't think so." General Landry sighed as he closed Oz's file and clasped his hands on top of the pile of documents.

Jon sympathised with Hank as he stared round them in turn, a defeated expression on his face. Hank was being asked to take a helluva lot on faith. Even he had been unaware of any discrepancies in Osbourne's background. He made a mental note to ask him about them the first chance he got. Meanwhile, Hank was talking, introducing Mitchell to them all.

Jon had already met the blue-eyed Colonel before. He'd been a Lieutenant Colonel undergoing his F-302 training then, and Jon had still been Jack O'Neill so Jon didn't really expect him to remember. Was quite glad he didn't really.

They all looked so young. That was the worst thing, Hank mused as Mitchell briefed them on their search for Faith. Buffy Summers' crack team looked like they should still be in school and that bothered him. So did the censored sections in their files. He really wished that Jack had taken his calls this morning.

"I think our first priority should be to travel to P4X-32Z and see what we can discover about this girl Faith seems to be travelling with." The enigmatic young Captain said and Hank rejoined the conversation.

"Not until you've completed your 'Gate training." He ruled. The last thing they needed was a repeat of the whole Faith debacle.

"How long will that take?" The slayer, Julie Wilson, asked him.

"SG-12 will be in charge of your 'Gate training." Hank told them. "You can go off-world when they clear you for 'Gate travel."

"Not SG-1?" Captain O'Neil asked, frowning.

"SG-1 will be off-world for the next six weeks. They leave at fourteen hundred hours." Hank told him, glancing at his watch. "In the meantime, SG-13 is scheduled to report to the infirmary in five minutes. Colonel Mitchell will show you where that is."

Colonel Mitchell and Jon both stood when General Landry did, so Jool rose to her feet as well. She watched the General as he walked into his office, shutting the door behind him and closing the blinds. That went well, she thought ruefully.

"Martin Lloyd?" Andrew, the only person in the room still sitting, asked.

"Alien." Cam and Jon told him at the same time.

Taken aback, both men looked at each other. Jon looked away first, shoving his hands in his pockets and inspecting his shoes. Andrew whimpered.

"So..." Jon said, looking back up. "Infirmary?"

**l**

Faith walked slowly down a flight of steps into a dead-end room with a weird-ass gold pedestal thing in the centre of it. Mallie had disappeared while Faith was busy watching Kay strip down the staff weapon to check for any possible damage to the mechanism. When they had realised that the younger slayer had disappeared, Faith had volunteered to go look for her. The lure of the dusty boot prints had proven too much for her when she had set out however, and despite the fact that she could clearly see that Mallie hadn't been that way, Faith found herself following the footprints.

She guessed that the room was half buried in the foundations of the landward side of the castle, a fact supported by the afternoon light flooding in through the high slitted windows. Intrigued by four long panels of very different writing, Faith prowled around the edges of the room, taking a good look at each stone. She stayed the longest by a stone engraved with what looked like runes, wishing she'd paid better attention whenever people had broken out the books.

Finally moving on, her foot caught in something and she stumbled by the last stone. Looking down she saw a piled of rags tangled round her ankle. Bending, she picked it up and shook it out.

It was a pair of very old and tattered canvas pants. They had a faded label inside. Faith could just about make out the words 'Made in Kansas' printed on it.

"Guess we're not in Kansas anymore." She said, dropping the trousers and stepping up onto the raised circle in the middle of the room, more interested in the golden pedestal now.

It looked kinda like one of the Stargate dialling mushrooms as she approached it and she wondered if it was a different version or something. It lit up as she approached and the four panels of writing on the walls suddenly glowed brightly. Faith touched the round amber stone in the centre of the console lightly and leapt back as a beam of light shot out from the top of the device.

Looking up in wonder, she watched as glowing balls of light spread out to hang in the air, walking around the room to get a closer look at individual globes. What did they mean? Fascinated, she lost all track of time.

"She's back and she's gutting dinner." Kay's voice floated down the hallway into the room.

Faith turned around as the older woman stopped in the doorway, the staff weapon in one hand and her mouth hanging open.

"What _is_ it?" Kay asked, hurrying down the steps and into the room. She stared up, her face lit from above by the glow of the display.

Faith shrugged. "Beats me." She said. "What do you make of it?"

Kay looked at her. "Me?" She asked. "I'd have thought it would be more your kind of thing. You are from Earth."

"Trust me, we don't get shit like this back home." Faith said, looking around the display. "I should know this." She said doggedly, staring at one globe in particular.

Two smaller blue sparks of light slowly orbited the sphere as it floated in mid-air. Kay followed her gaze and cocked her head to one side as she studied the globe. They stared in silence at the display until Faith physically shook herself out of her stupor, turning to Kay.

"Dinner?"

"Yes!" Kay said, turning to her. "Malina killed some rabbits."

Great. First Bambi, now Thumper. Faith's gaze fell on the staff weapon Kay held in her hand and she grinned.

"Guess she'll need some firewood then." She said.

**l**

"Sharp scratch."

Vala winced as the needle pierced her arm. "And we have to have one of these every time we go off-world?" She asked.

"Yes." Daniel told her.

Vala pouted.

"Yes." Daniel repeated, more firmly. He looked away from her as she continued to pout.

His gaze fell on Caroline Lam as a worried nurse handed her a folder. Caroline frowned as she listened to the nurse and then dismissed her with a reassuring smile, opening the file. She frowned again as she read it and crossed the infirmary towards them.

"Felicity," She said and the nurse currently drawing vials of blood from Daniel's arm looked up. "Those blood works you did this morning, was there anything unusual about them?"

The nurse shook her head. "Nothing. Why?"

"Just wondering." Caroline told her.

Wondering why she had lied, Daniel watched her as she walked towards her office. A well-aimed pillow hit the side of his head and he turned his indignant gaze to the bane of his existence.

"_What_?"

"I blame you." Vala told him as the nurse by her side fitted another vial to the needle in her arm.

**l**

After enduring a battery of tests at the infirmary, an Airman took them on a tour of the SGC's facilities, quickly leaving them outside their assigned quarters as soon as Andrew began to show signs of recovering. Jon looked around the expectant faces of his team as they all looked at him.

"Who wants to see if the mess has cake?" He asked.

"I'll meet you guys there." Jool said. "I just want to freshen up first."

"Ooh, good idea." Andrew told her. "Where did I pack my combats?"

Jon winced. "I'll send an airman to show you the way when we get there."

"You're going to the one on level twenty-two?" Jool asked and Jon nodded. "I know the way."

"See you there." Jon shrugged, heading for the elevators, Oz by his side.

Siler was in the elevator. As the sergeant's jaw dropped in recognition and he started to salute, Jon trod on his foot, pressing the button for level twenty-two. Siler dropped his wrench on his other foot.

"Ouch." Jon sympathised, picking the wrench up for him. "Captain Jon O'Neil and Daniel Osbourne. SG-13." He introduced them as he gave the clearly bewildered sergeant his wrench back. The elevator doors opened. "Our stop." He told Oz, stepping out of the elevator.

Oz glanced up at Jon as he guided him through the unfamiliar hallways. "You've been here before." Startled, Jon glanced at him. "Yeah." He admitted. His face twisted wryly. "A lifetime ago."

Clueless, Oz nodded wisely as they entered the cafeteria. "I hear you."

"Ooh, cake." Jon noticed.

He had just lifted his first forkful when a shadow fell over their table. Loaded fork hanging in mid-air, Jon looked up at Corporal Trigger-Happy.

"General Landry wants to see you in the briefing room." Trigger-Happy told him.

"Can I eat my cake while we wait for the rest of my team?" Jon asked.

"Just you two." Trigger-Happy rumbled.

Alarmed, Jon looked at Oz. Why did Hank only want them? Jon carefully placed the forkful of cake down on his plate before he stood. Better go find out.

**l**

"Be careful." Kay warned, handing Faith the staff weapon as they came within firing distance of the tree-line. "I've set the power as high as I can without running the risk of overloading the power crystal but if you need a second shot... don't take it." She grimaced.

Faith twirled the Jaffa staff in her hand, getting the balance of the weapon as she selected a tree that looked about the right size for a raft. "You got it." She promised and fired.

The shot impacted on the trunk of the tree she had chosen, near the base. Pulverised by the blast, splinters of wood shot out in all directions. With a jolt Faith felt through the soles of her feet, the tree dropped about two foot and slowly toppled over. Smoke drifted up from the stump in wispy curls.

Lifting the open end of the staff so that it was inches from her face, pointing up at the sky, Faith blew imaginary smoke from the tip. She closed the staff with a snap and handed it back to Kay.

"Wicked cool." She told her.

Kay frowned down at the staff. "I think I need to take the power level back down a bit." She said and looked up.

Faith was already over by the fallen tree, kicking the charred trunk with a booted foot. Kay sighed and trudged over to join her, carrying the staff weapon. Kay knew that too many high-powered shots would quickly drain the weapon's power reserves. Hopefully, by only using as much power as they actually needed to fell each tree they could prevent the staff from burning out before they made it off the planet.

**l**

Mitchell, Hank and Doctor Lam were sitting at the conference table waiting for them when Jon and Oz arrived. Exchanging uneasy glances, they sat down next to one another. Jon glanced at his watch. Quarter to two. Mitchell was cutting it fine.

"Was there a problem with our physicals?" Jon asked.

Hank snorted. "In a manner of speaking." He said, looking at the doctor on his left.

"We found some slight abnormalities when we were running your DNA tests." Doctor Lam said and Jon felt a cold sweat break out on his skin. "Were you aware that you had canine DNA, Mr Osbourne?"

Jon looked at Oz as he slouched in his seat. Suddenly a lot of things made sense. "Werewolf?" He asked.

Oz nodded.

"And the blacked-out sections of your file?" Hank pressed.

"Got captured by the army once." Oz told him. "There were experiments."

Doctor Lam winced. "Well, you'll be pleased to hear that as far as I'm concerned, SG-13 is cleared for active duty."

"Really?" Jon asked.

"Apart from the strange variation we've detected in Doctor Wilson's Ancient gene, there's nothing else to cause any concern." She told him. "Although it is strange that both you and she possess the gene."

"I assume that you'll need to take the full moon off every month." Hank asked Osbourne.

The pink-haired werewolf shook his head. "I can repress the change." He explained.

"Cool." Mitchell said, glancing at his watch.

"Well, now that's settled." General Landry said, standing up.

"Is that it?" Jon asked, unable to believe his luck.

"Unless there's something you'd like to add?" Hank asked him.

Jon shook his head. "Oh, no. I'm good."

"Has Doctor Jackson had any luck translating the prophecy?" Oz asked.

General Landry and Colonel Mitchell exchanged confused glances.

"Prophecy?" The Colonel asked.

"Willow emailed it to him last week." Oz elaborated. "We think it might be about Faith and the Stargate. No?"

"You really should remind him to check his email more often." Jon told them.

**l**

Teal'c was waiting with Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran as Sergeant Walter Harriman dialled the Stargate when Colonel Carter hurried into the 'Gate room, her hazmat helmet held under one arm.

"Sorry I'm late." She apologised, coming to a stop next to Teal'c Daniel and Vala. "Where's Cam?"

"Don't know." Daniel said with a frown as Vala shrugged.

"SG-13 were due to arrive this morning." Sam remembered. "Has anyone seen them?" She asked, looking at the others.

Teal'c inclined his head. "I believe I may have encountered two of them." He informed them.

_The elevator doors slid smoothly open to reveal a short thin man in civilian clothes stood next to a tall woman with long corkscrew curls of red hair. Teal'c obligingly stepped backwards in the empty lift, wondering if the woman had recently suffered an electric shock._

"_Grell!" The man squeaked, rushing forward and Teal'c lifted an eyebrow, stepping back again as the woman stepped in and the doors closed._

_Cuffing the man lightly round the back of the head, the woman chided him. "It's not Grell!" She said sharply. "This isn't the WormHole Agency, it's the SGC." She turned to Teal'c. "What _does_ that mean?" She asked._

"_StarGate Command." Teal'c rumbled._

_Practically quivering, the young Tau'ri man looked slavishly up at Teal'c. _

"_Can I have your autograph?" He begged._

"Really?" Colonel Carter asked as the Stargate engaged.

"Indeed."

There was a moment of silence as they all waited for him to continue. A stormy-faced Cameron Mitchell entered the 'Gateroom.

"Check your email." He told Daniel Jackson.

"Now?" Daniel asked as Mitchell strode past him.

"Guess not." Vala said with a shrug, putting her helmet on and following Cam up the ramp.

Teal'c watched them as they left for Vagonbrei, glad that he wasn't returning to the planet with them. As the wormhole shut off with a crackle of energy and Walter immediately began dialling again, Teal'c looked up to the briefing room window. A lone figure stood there, silhouetted against the light. Teal'c' eyes squinted and then widened in recognition.

As the Stargate burst into life behind him, the Jaffa raised an arm in silent salute. Up in the briefing room, the man returned the gesture. Teal'c turned and left the SGC, satisfied that SG-13 was in good hands.

**l**

Thumper tasted _good_. Faith gnawed greedily on a plump leg, uncaring of the grease that covered her hands and mouth. They'd built a roaring fire in the courtyard, placing the uprooted cobblestones from under the trees in a ring around it. Mallie had rigged up a spit using two forked branches, more cobblestones and a metal rebar she'd pulled from the exposed edge of the Gateroom and had roasted both rabbits at the same time. Now, as night fell, they sat around the edge of the fire, enjoying their meal in silence. All too soon, it was all gone.

"I shall go hunting tomorrow."

"What're we doing tomorrow?"

Mallie and Kay spoke at the same time, both looking at Faith.

Faith blinked. "I wanna get started on the raft tomorrow." She said. "We can hunt on the way to the cove."

"You're building it at the cove?" Kay asked.

"I thought you were going to build it at the cave." Mallie said.

"How're you going to get it back here?"

Faith shrugged. "Sail, I guess." She turned to Mallie. "You can sew some skins together or somethin', right?"

"Do you happen to have a needle and some thread?" Mallie asked sweetly. "Because I left mine at Kay's inn."

"Okay, sailing's out." Faith said. "How 'bout rowing?"

Kay frowned. "With what?"

"I don't know!" Faith exclaimed, thoroughly pissed off. "Bones?"

To her surprise, Mallie looked thoughtful. "That... could work." She said slowly.

"If we could work out a way to tie some branches to the bones we could get better leverage." Kay suggested. "But why don't we just build it here? We've got water, and shelter and we can just lower it down the cliff when we're done."

The Stargate was just a short walk and a long drop away, Faith reflected. It might not be her favourite way of getting there but it was the quickest. Once again she was struck by the unassailable feeling that she was supposed to be somewhere else, that she was running out of time. It wasn't a bad idea, and she told Kay so.

"So that's settled then." Kay said with a smile and got up to go to the well.

Mallie frowned. "Does this mean we're not going back to the cave?"

**l**

Corporal Trigger-Happy was back and he'd brought a friend. Annoyed, Jon swallowed his mouthful of cake.

"What?" He asked as his team stopped eating their lunch. Ketchup dripped unnoticed from Jool's burger to her blouse.

"'Gate training. Colonel Haddon says we have to be topside in fifteen." Trigger-Happy grinned evilly at Andrew, who paled.

Jon ate another bite of cake. Slowly. "Plenty of time." He said nonchalantly.

"Move." Trigger-Happy's friend, Beefcake, said. "Now."

**l**

Without actually talking about it, they made the decision earlier to spend the night on the floor of the room with the mini-mushroom, as Faith had taken to calling it. Cushioned by a layer of tic-free bracken, Faith stretched out on the floor and watched the light show. A memory was tickling at the edge of her consciousness and the harder she tried to grasp it, the further it slipped from her grasp.

Ignoring the rustling next to her as Mallie and Kay made themselves comfortable, Faith narrowed her focus down to long slow breaths in and out, striving to clear her mind. Just when she thought she had achieved her goal, the memory of the last time she had seen Cam popped into her head. Resolutely, she set him to one side and went back to the deep breathing.

A globe drifted directly over her head, brightly coloured blue lights whizzing around it like satellites. Four hundred and eighty two breaths later, it glided slowly overhead again. Faith began counting again as soon as it disappeared from sight.

Four hundred and seventy five... Four hundred and seventy six... Four hundred and seventy seven...

"Faith?" Mallie asked quietly.

"Yeah?" ...Four hundred and seventy eight...

"We are going to get off this planet, right?"

Nestled in the bracken next to the girl, Kay held her breath as she waited for Faith's reply.

Above Faith, the globe swung slowly into view. "Damn straight." She said with a conviction she didn't feel.

Comforted, Mallie rolled over and quickly fell asleep. Soon after, Kay's light breathing turned to heavy snores and Faith was left to stare sightlessly at the display above, feeling incredibly small.

**l**

John Michaels hurt. That was the first thing he was aware of as he groped towards consciousness. The second was the steady beeping of a heart monitor. So he was in the infirmary then. That was good. He opened his eyes and struggled to focus on the concerned faces of Doctor Lam and the General.

"Welcome back Corporal." Doctor Lam told him, shining her penlight into his eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Fine." John told her, squinting against the bright light.

"Hmm." She said sceptically, putting the penlight away. "Can you remember what happened?"

"Colonel Haddon organised a training exercise for SG-13 on the surface." John told her. "A team on team capture scenario. Shoulda been a piece of cake." He frowned suddenly and looked at the General. "I think they were using the nerd as bait. I don't remember anything after we spotted him."

General Landry nodded reassuringly as Michaels sank back onto his pillow, exhausted. "Rest." He told the Corporal.

Exchanging a significant look with his daughter, Hank withdrew as she bent back over her patient. He watched her, smiling fondly, as she fussed over Michaels until he finally fell asleep. She checked the various machines he was hooked up to once more before joining him.

"How is he?" Hank asked her.

"Mild concussion, multiple bruises and abrasions." Caroline told him, glancing over at the unconscious Corporal. "All in all, he got off lucky. Galloway has three cracked ribs, Mackenzie's got a bruised larynx and Colonel Haddon has a broken metacarpal in his right hand. What happened up there?"

"Apparently SG-13 won." Hank said wryly.

"Where are they now?"

"I sent them home for the day." Hank told her. "Doctor Wilson is still here of course."

He'd have to find someone else to take over their 'Gate training, he realised. He sighed as his headache reached epic proportions. If only he could go home too.

**l**

The food on board the Odyssey was much better than the meals you could get at the SGC. Relishing the taste of a large plate of spaghetti meatballs, Vala was unusually silent as they ate dinner. She still couldn't quite believe that she'd been allowed to accompany Daniel, Sam and Mitchell to Atlantis. Atlantis.

As soon as she'd learned of the outpost's existence, she'd immersed herself in the Tau'ri legends of the lost city. In all her travels throughout the galaxy, she'd never heard so much as a hint of the place before she'd come to the SGC and that was intriguing. It was enough to make a girl wonder what other places of Tau'ri legend might have a basis in fact. For example, that Hamunaptra place she'd been reading about last night... or El Dorado...

Vala smiled.

**l**

Jool hummed along to the recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture playing on the small stereo on the bookcase as she pottered around her room. Carefully, she tweaked the positioning of a framed photograph of the parents she couldn't remember. Now that she had finished unpacking her bags, she didn't know what to do with herself. She paced up and down as she wondered what to do next. The telephone on her bedside cabinet rang shrilly and Jool jumped at the unfamiliar sound.

Hurriedly, she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"You eaten yet?" Captain O'Neil asked.

"No." Jool admitted.

"We're on our way to pick you up." He told her. "I know a place that does a mean steak. Call it a team-building exercise."

"You mean this afternoon wasn't enough for you?"

"Told you it'd be a piece of cake. You in?"

"I'm in."

**l**

Faith opened her eyes just as the globe passed overhead again. Groaning, she rolled out of the bed of bracken and pushed herself to her feet. The little sleep she'd managed to snatch earlier had been filled with dreams, nightmares really, of her school days. Normally, she tried to suppress those memories along with anything else that had happened before she was called. Faith winced as she ran her fingers through her knotted hair.

Kay snorted in her sleep and rolled over, causing Faith to look down at the bed for the first time. When had Mallie gotten up? The zat was gone too. Mildly panicked, Faith went in search of the girl, her tangled hair forgotten.

The young slayer wasn't in the 'Gate room, so Faith headed to the courtyard. There, two full water-bags set near the empty fireplace provided mute evidence of Mallie's passage. Standing in the castle's gateway, Faith scanned the grassland between the forest and castle walls, looking for the girl. The clouds overhead looked apricot against the blue sky, shining in the rising sun. As the light crept down the mountain towards her, Faith turned her back on the spectacle and re-entered the courtyard.

She knew that Mallie had intended to hunt today and so she wasn't overly concerned by the girl's absence. If it got to midday or something and the girl still wasn't back, she'd consider going to look for her but until then, she could do more harm than good by blundering around the forest looking for her.

She relit the fire, using the last of their wood pile. Soon, they'd have more wood than they knew what to do with, she mused as she sat back and concentrated on getting as many of the knots out of her hair with her finger as she could. Damn, what wouldn't she give for a comb?

Well, her cigarettes for one. Faith patted the reassuring box in her pocket. Only twelve left now. How much longer would the packet last? Faith promised herself that she wouldn't smoke again until they were off this fucking planet.

She was just plating her hair, mourning the lack of anything to secure it, when Mallie staggered through the castle gateway, bent almost double under the weight of a fully-grown stag. Faith leapt to her feet to help her and together, the two slayers set the dead animal down in the centre of the courtyard. Gasping, Mallie drank deeply from one of the water bags, almost completely draining the small bladder.

Seeing the way that the fire was beginning to die down, Faith went to get some more wood while Mallie began the bloody work of butchering the animal.

When she got back, distributing her armload of wood between Mallie and the fire, six thick steaks were sizzling on the stones around the fireplace and Mallie had the hide and head off the carcass. Breakfast looked like it still needed a while to cook and so Faith returned to the forest for yet more wood.

Walking underneath the tall trees, Faith wished she'd brought the staff weapon with her. She wasn't an outdoors kinda person, never had been, preferring to spend her time in concrete jungles instead of real ones. Unable to fit one more piece of wood into her arms, she returned to the castle, determined to fetch the staff weapon and make a start on the raft. The sooner they got back to civilisation, even if it was a third-world kinda civilisation, the better.

A green-faced Kay was waiting in the courtyard when Faith returned. The staff weapon by her side, the older woman watched Mallie with morbid fascination as the youngest slayer extracted organs from inside the dead stag, blood covering her arms up to her elbows and beyond. Its head was facing her and Kay could have sworn it was looking straight at her. The loud clatter of wood hitting cobblestones jerked her gaze from Mallie to Faith as the Tau'ri woman stood grinning by the fire.

"Ready to get started?" Faith asked and Kay found herself nodding enthusiastically, eager to get away from the bloody spectacle. "You're five by five 'bout stayin', yeah?" Faith turned to Mallie.

The young girl smiled up at her, a smear of drying blood staining one cheek. "I have plenty to keep me occupied." She told Faith.

"Cool." Faith snapped a long straight twig from a tree and speared four of the steaks cooking by the fire. "We'll eat on the way." She told Kay. "C'mon."

**l**

"Anything else, sir?" Walter asked as usual at the ending of his morning briefing with General Landry.

"Actually, there is one thing." General Landry told him. "I need you to take over SG-13's 'Gate training this morning. Walk 'em through how to dial a planet and whatnot."

"Sir..." Walter struggled to find words... any words. "I-I haven't... I've never been through the 'Gate Sir. Are you sure...?"

"You'll do fine!" General Landry said heartily, clapping him on the back and steering him over to the door. "I have every confidence in you Walter."

The General's door closed with a click and Walter found himself standing alone in the briefing room. His mouth opened and closed ineffectually. He hadn't met SG-13 yet. Knew nothing about them apart from the fact that they were all young and the slayer was living on the base at the moment. He wouldn't even recognise them if one came up to him. Oh, God! What was he going to say?

**l**

Cam yawned as he sat down at the table with his teammates. He'd spent most of last night tossing and turning as he struggled to fall asleep, thoughts of Faith never far from his mind. Resolutely, he pushed her from his mind yet again as Jackson spoke to him.

"Why do I need to check my email?" Daniel asked, much more alert than Mitchell thanks to a good night's sleep and a third cup of coffee.

Mitchell drank some of his own coffee before he responded. "Willow Rosenburg emailed you a prophecy about Faith and the Stargate last week."

Daniel gaped at him. "An actual prophecy?" He asked. "What does it say?"

"They don't know." Cam told him patiently. "That's why they emailed it to you. Apparently they're under the impression that you check your email."

"I do!"

"When?"

"When I can."

"Don't."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it. It's gibberish."

"Do!"

Vala's throwaway comment as the two grown men's conversation degenerated into childish bickering would have gone unnoticed if it hadn't been for Sam. Looking up from her bowl of cornflakes, the blonde astrophysist frowned at the mother of the Orici.

"You've seen it?" Sam asked her.

"Oh yes." Vala told her happily as Cam and Daniel stopped arguing long enough to realise what she was saying. "I stopped translating it when it mentioned a giant codfish."

"You've translated it?" Cam asked

Sam frowned again. "Codfish?"

"Not all of it." Vala told Mitchell. "I was going to finish it the other night but Daniel had already packed my notebook."

"You read my email?" Daniel asked, outraged.

"Jackson, focus!" Cam told him. "Where's your notebook now?" He asked Vala.

She frowned. "Well, Daniel packed it with the rest of his things..."

"It's in my office!" Daniel said, standing.

Cam drained his mug of coffee and stood. "Let's go find it then."

"You got given an office?" Vala asked, trailing after them. "Why didn't I get an office too?"

Left alone, Sam looked around the empty table. Did it need four of them to find one notebook? Shrugging, she turned back to her cornflakes, her mind already working on the more vexing problem of the yield calculations for the wormhole jump.

**l**

By mid-day, Faith and Kay had perfected the art of felling trees. They took it in turns to actually blast the tree down and then worked together to tear off the branches until they were left with a long pole. Then they carried it to the meadow, adding it to the growing pile before starting the whole process again. Eying the pile speculatively, Faith was on the verge of calling a halt for the day when Mallie hailed them.

"Lunch is ready." The young girl told them as she approached.

Kay, who was regretting letting Faith eat her breakfast, was already heading for the castle when Faith called her back.

"Forgettin' something?" Faith asked, a tree trunk tucked under each arm. "I'm thinkin' we build it in the 'Gate room."

"'Gate room?" Mallie asked, picking up a couple of trunks.

"Yeah." Faith told her as Kay retraced her steps towards them. "Big room; made of stone; great view of the sea."

**l**

Walter's jaw dropped as SG-13 filed into the briefing room. Why had nobody warned him that General O'Neill's clone was the new leader of SG-13? Seeing the dirty glare the teenager shot him, Walter closed his mouth with an audible snap. The newest SGC team settled themselves around the table and looked at him. Walter stared back at the clone. Someone coughed.

"Good morning." Walter said, and jerked his gaze away from the teenager only to have it land on another one.

Were any of them over twenty-one? He watched them as they greeted him. The red-haired slayer in a white trouser suit was English and had an angry looking scar on her neck. Were they... _tooth_ marks? The blonde boy in black and white combats and a tight white tank top sounded Californian. The clone sounded like a younger version of O'Neill and the maroon-haired boy in the pale pink shirt merely nodded. Walter stared at them, at a loss for words.

"So..." O'Neill's clone said with an expectant smile, propping his booted feet up on the table. "Dialling for Dummies."

**l**

It was very disheartening, watching Daniel strike thick lines through her painstaking work. Vala watched him as he worked, grimacing every time he dismissed one of her translations. Occasionally he left one of the words she had translated alone, sometimes leaving a small notation next to it before moving to the next.

"Well?" She said finally, when he had finished.

"Not bad," Daniel told her absently. "But where did you get codfish from?"

"What does it say?" Cam asked impatiently.

"I don't know." Daniel said. "I need to work on it."

"I'll help." Vala volunteered.

"How long do you need?" Cam asked.

"Ah, I don't know." Daniel admitted. "It's not like I've got all of my reference material with me."

Cam shot the groaning bookshelves around the small room a disbelieving look and then remembered Storeroom Twenty-Nine. Maybe he had a point.

"Do what you can." He told him.

"Uh-huh." Daniel said absently, already engrossed in the original copy of the prophecy.

Vala smiled brightly at Cameron. "We will!" She promised.

**l**

Walter concentrated on the page in front of him, reading Doctor Jackson's Stargate Operations briefing notes word for word in a rapid monotone. About halfway down the third page he was interrupted by a soft snore. He looked up to see the General's clone fast asleep in his chair.

"Late night." The maroon-haired boy said with an apologetic shrug.

The blonde boy leaned forward, an eager expression on his face. "So, do you have one of these DHD's here? Because on Wormhole X-Treme they used computers to interface with the Stargate."

"Uh..." Walter said, staring at the guy in disbelief. "We use computers too. In fact, they're downstairs, in the control room. Would-would, you like to see?"

And so he found himself shepherding the three down the stairs to the control room. Dismissing the lone technician who stood guard while the computers ran a routine 'Gate diagnostic program, he walked them through the systems, showing them the iris and impressing the blonde, Andrew, in the process. Apparently, Wormhole X-Treme didn't have an iris. He allowed himself to feel a little smug about that fact.

Warming to his subject now he was in familiar surroundings, Walter found himself answering their questions with confidence, his intimate knowledge of the doings of the various SG teams helping him when his personal knowledge failed. It wasn't until his console beeped at him to signify the end of the diagnostic program that he realised how much time had passed. Ending the briefing, he turned his back on the trio as they walked back up the staircase to the briefing room, turning his attention to the data in front of him. It looked like he'd need to call Siler to come repair the secondary power coupling again. Engrossed in the information on his screen, it wasn't until he felt a tap on his shoulder that Walter realised that he wasn't alone. Spinning round in his seat, he came to his feet and attention when he realised who it was.

"Sir." He said, saluting.

"Can it Walter." General O'Neill's clone told him. Walter noticed for the first time that he wore the insignia of a Captain now. "I wanted to thank you for earlier." The clone continued. He stepped closer, looking around the deserted control room. "I'm trying to keep it on the down low. Who I used to be."

"I understand, sir." Walter managed.

"Thanks. Do me a favour and tell Siler when you see him, would you? Oh! And it's Jon O'Neil now, by the way. One l." The Captain glanced at his watch. "I'd better go. We've got Bill Lee on What Not to Touch in half an hour."

"Well if anyone would know..."

"Daniel would." O'Neil said, looking at him with O'Neill's eyes. "Where are they Walter?"

It wasn't fair.

**l**

It didn't take long for the three of them to lash the logs together with vines. Then they had to think of a way to lower it down the cliff. In the end, Kay volunteered to climb down beside the raft as Malina and Faith lowered it on ropes made from more vines. A small area of the castle wall had now been completely stripped of the useful plant.

As Kay stopped to hammer another wooden peg in to a cleft in the cliff face with a bone Mallie had given her especially, she glanced over to her left to see how the raft was doing. Several of the logs were scarred by repeated collisions with the cliff and the middle section sagged alarmingly. Still, there was nothing she could do about it until she reached the bottom. Kay glanced down. Only a few more feet to go.

Looping the vine wrapped around her waist round the peg as soon as she was sure it was secure, Kay carried on making her way down the cliff, wishing, not for the first time, that she had been wearing something less hampering than a long skirt when the Ori had invaded her planet. Something like the 'combats' Faith wore would have been more useful.

She stopped to hammer in one more peg just above the high tide mark, knotting the vine around it tightly and using the last of the rope wound around her waist to hurry down the cliff ahead of the raft. Easing herself into the ocean, she gasped at the unexpected cold and then pushed away from the cliff to finish guiding the raft down.

Grasping hold of the lowermost edge, Kay kicked her legs, pulling the raft with her so that it briefly laid flat above the surface of the sea before Faith and Malina finished lowering it. Kay towed it a few more feet away from the cliff before she climbed on board and set about tightening the vines that tied the entire structure together. A shouted warning from far above her reached her sensitive ears and Kay looked up. _A'kak_!

Jumping, Kay clung to the cliff face as a large wave lifted the raft and smashed it against the rocks below her, dashing it to pieces. Kay groaned and rested her forehead on the rock wall, closing her eyes briefly before gritting her teeth and starting the long climb back up to the castle at the top of the cliff.

**l**

"Come."

Hank's office door opened in response to his barked order and Walter stuck his head around the door.

"Are you busy, sir?" He asked.

"What is it?" Hank asked, looking up from his paperwork.

Walter entered the room fully and closed the door. "It's about SG-13, sir." He said.

Hank closed his eyes. He could feel a headache looming. "Go on." He told the other man.

"During the briefing this morning, Oz asked for a copy of our 'Gate diagnostic program."

"Daniel Osbourne?" Hank asked.

Walter looked blank. "Short? Maroon hair?"

"Pink."

"No, sir. Definitely maroon. Pink shirt."

Hank's temples throbbed. "You gave him a copy?"

"Yes, sir." Walter told him. "When I got back from my lunch break, he'd left an altered version of the program on my desk."

Suddenly Hank could visualise every team currently off-world. "Tell me you didn't load it into the computer."

"Just Colonel Carter's 'Gate Interface Simulation program, sir." Walter said and Hank could feel the tension easing from his body. "I can't explain it."

"What?" Hank growled, the tension back in full force.

Walter shrugged, clearly perplexed. "He shaved almost five minutes off the program's running time in half an hour."

As Hank stared at him, a small trickle of plaster dust trickled down from the ceiling to patter onto the open file on his desk. Frowning, Hank looked up.

"Now what?" He asked the ceiling.

**l**

"Is anyone hurt?" Jool asked as she struggled out from behind the wreckage of a desk.

"I-I'm fine." Doctor Lee told her, coughing on the smoke that choked the room.

Oz stood up. "I'm good."

"I'm gonna regret that one day." Jon said from the floor.

"Get off me." Andrew told him. "Ow!"

"Dude," Oz said to Andrew as Jon stood and pulled the other man to his feet. "Not cool."

Andrew looked sheepishly at them. "Um... oops?"

"It's What Not to Touch, not What to Juggle With." Jon told him.

"Well said." General Landry said from the doorway.

They turned to face him as he stood surveying the wrecked lab. A small explosion had gone off roughly in the centre of the room, spraying glass and twisted metal everywhere. A few pages of paper still smouldered on the floor. People still stood by the wrecked furniture they had ducked behind for cover. The sprinkler system came online.

"Lemme guess..." Jon said as a computer in the corner exploded in a shower of sparks. "Home time?"

**l**

"Faith?" Malina asked sleepily.

"Shh... go back to sleep. I'll be back in a minute."

Malina snuggled deeper into the bracken in an attempt to obey the other slayer but it was no good. She tossed and turned as she struggled to fall asleep again, almost waking the snoring Kay in the process. Finally, she got up too.

She found Faith in the 'Gate room, smoking one of her cigarettes. Her bare feet silent on the stone floor, Malina sat down on the cliff edge next to her. She looked up at Faith as she breathed out smoke.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

"Anchors." Faith said in explanation.

Malina frowned. What were anchors?

**l**

Jon turned off his bedside light and lay back against his pillow, crossing his arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. Atlantis, huh? City of the Ancients. Sleeping for millennia on the seabed of a water planet in a whole other galaxy until they'd come along to raise it. Bet Daniel was loving that! Carter would probably go nuts over all the alien doohickeys as soon as they got there. Jon was surprised that Jack had allowed them to go - he wouldn't - but with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, he figured the General hadn't had much choice. Idly, he wondered what else he'd missed while he'd been busy completing high school once again.

**l**

Fully expecting to spend the night staring at the ceiling once again, Cam stretched out in his bed and quickly tumbled into sleep and a classroom. It was faded and run-down and didn't look like one he'd ever spent any time in however. A dark-haired girl was sat at the desk in front of him and Cam couldn't resist the urge to reach out and tweak her long ponytail.

"Quit it!" Faith spat, turning around in her seat to glare at him. "I'm tryin' to study."

Cam gaped at her as she turned back round to face the front. "Faith! Where are you? Are you alright?"

"Shh!" She rebuked him. "I can't hear the teacher."

Cam glanced up at the glowing balls of amber light hanging behind the teacher's desk as smaller blue lights circled them. Somehow, he doubted they could hear her either. He pulled Faith's ponytail again.

"Hey! What're we studying?" He whispered.


	9. The Calm Before The Storm

**A/N:**

Many apologies for the late post. This has actually been ready to post for a while now. I was gonna give it a final read-through after my consultant's appointment last week but he pulled me straight into hospital for another operation instead.

Also, due to the anaesthetic, my brain can't come up with a chapter title right now so I'm opening the floor for suggestions. Answers on a postcard please!

Enjoy.

**Chapter Nine**

The days slipped into one another until Faith was never quite sure how long it had taken to design and install an anchor, build a replacement raft and then another stronger one when the first replacement broke apart one windy night. Finally, they were ready to begin to attempt to raise the Stargate. The day that the new, triple-layered, raft was lowered and attached to the buoy floating above the Stargate, Faith ordered an early night, knowing that they would need all of their strength for the impossible task that lay ahead.

Lying in their bed of bracken, staring sightlessly at the orbs floating overhead, Faith allowed her imagination free reign as her mind drifted back to Earth. B was probably patrolling about now, X-man and possibly Red by her side as she took on Britain's biggest baddies. Giles would be researching the latest prophecy to threaten any of his girls, a cold pot of tea by his elbow. Little D was either in bed or waiting up for B to come home. If Red couldn't be found with B then she'd be no more than five feet from Kennedy's side.

Her vivid imagination failed her when it came to Cam. Was he asleep in bed, at home? Out celebrating another successful mission with his team? Or, like her, was he lying awake on a foreign planet? It seemed crazy that while she could picture him perfectly, she couldn't imagine what he was doing right now. They'd been so closely linked not so long ago that she could still feel the empty space in her mind where he had been.

If only they hadn't destroyed the Mind-Melder. She would've been back home by now. Back in the land of Jack Daniels, McDonalds and hair-free legs. Still... Faith couldn't shake the feeling that she was where she was meant to be. Well, maybe not _here_ exactly. But... not on Earth. Much as she'd love to be back there right now, lying in a long, hot bath, whiskey in one hand, cigarette in the other and Cam down by the taps, if she was interpreting her slayer dream correctly, then there were other slayers out there. Slayers not on Earth, who'd been activated by Willow's spell. And she was supposed to find them.

Then what? Go head to head with the entire Ori army, Adria included? Faith doubted there were enough slayers on earth to win that battle, let alone spread out across the galaxy.

How was she supposed to find them anyway? Mallie had found her when she needed to get off that first planet and then it had been the other girl who had found Kay as well.

Still wondering how the hell she was supposed to do whatever it was that the Powers That Be wanted her to do, Faith finally fell asleep.

**l**

General Landry stepped out the elevator on level twenty-seven, heading for his office. Walter fell into step behind him with the ease of many years of practice as he updated his commander on all of the events that had occurred in his absence. Following the General into his office, Walter winced as he came to the last item on his clipboard.

"Doctor Wilson had her first driving lesson yesterday." He began. "In total, two trucks, seventeen traffic cones and a checkpoint barrier were destroyed. Also, one of the gun emplacements on the approach to the mountain was damaged. Both Doctor Wilson and Mr Wells were unharmed, although Andrew is refusing to give her any more lessons."

"Good." General Landry said, opening the first of the files waiting for attention on the desk. "When Captain O'Neil arrives, tell him I want to see him."

Walter showed himself out and Hank turned his full attention to the paperwork in front of him. In a surprisingly short amount of time there was a cursory knock on the door and he looked up as the door opened and Captain O'Neil stuck his head through the gap.

"You wanted to see me sir?" He asked, coming fully into the room and shutting the door behind him.

"Yes." General Landry said, glancing at his clock. It was still ridiculously early. What time had the Captain arrived? "Take a seat."

"Thank you sir." The Captain said, complying.

Hank clasped his hands together on his desk and regarded him evenly. "So," he said. "How do you think you've done?"

"Not bad." Jon said honestly. "We broke all the records at the weapons range and during our physical evaluations."

"You also destroyed two labs and put SG-12 in the infirmary." Hank countered.

"Technically the second one wasn't our fault." Jon pointed out. Felger really should know better by now. "What about all those nifty little programs Oz's been writing for Walter?"

"According to Doctor Lee," Hank said, picking up a sheet of paper to check his facts. "Half of the science department is no longer talking to the other half since Mr Wells joined in the Dungeons and Dragons night."

"But he's settling in well in the linguistic department. Doctor Wilson's started working a shift in the infirmary and she'll move out as soon as she gets her license."

"About that." Hank said wryly. "I would appreciate it if any further lessons take place _outside_ the complex."

Jon suppressed a wince. "Understood, sir."

"All things considered, I'm sure you'll understand why I'm eager to remove a destructive force from the SGC." Hank told him. "SG-13 is scheduled to leave for P4X-32Z at eleven hundred hours. Walter will brief you on pre-mission protocol."

As Jon was busy trying to work out if he'd heard Hank correctly, the General dismissed him. Managing a thank you before he left the room, Jon found himself standing in the corridor outside, still unable to believe his ears.

**l**

Malina smiled at Faith as the older woman stumbled into the courtyard. "Good morning sleepyhead." She greeted. "Your breakfast is over there."

Faith grunted a reply, sitting down on the floor. Slowly, she ate her meal in silence, really missing coffee. Nothing could beat the first cup of coffee and a smoke. Sighing, she laid last few bites back down on the bone plate. As good as Mallie's cooking was under the circumstances, the steady diet of meat, meat and more meat was more boring than prison food. Faith found herself wondering if there were any more of those plum trees close by. To distract herself, she glanced at Kay as the older woman fiddled with the staff weapon, a glum look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked and Kay looked up at her.

She sighed. "The power cell's almost completely depleted."

"Power cell... that's like a battery, right?"

Kay frowned. "What's a battery?"

"Uh..." Faith struggled to think of a way to explain batteries. "You put them in stuff to power it. When they run out of juice you gotta put new ones in. You can get rechargeable ones though."

"Oh. We need a new 'battery'." Kay said, testing out the new word. "What does rechargeable mean?"

**l**

"Ready?" Kay asked Mallie as they stood on the cliff edge.

She nodded as Faith ran up from behind them and dived over the cliff. Moments later, Mallie followed. Kay peered over the edge of the cliff to watch them surface.

"I hate it when she does that." She mumbled to herself.

Satisfied that the pair wwere safe, Kay swung herself over the edge and began to climb down. Familiarity with the route made her descent a rapid one and before long, she was low enough to let go and drop the last few feet into the sea.

Water closed over her head and Kay fought back the urge to panic, kicking up. She could do this. She gasped for air as her head broke the surface. The salt water stung her eyes as she opened them and she blinked. Faith grinned at her, Mallie by her side.

"We good to go?" Faith asked her.

Kay nodded and the three slayers stuck out together for the raft. Faith reached it first, climbing aboard and helping Mallie and Kay out of the water. The three slayers, all dressed in their own version of underwear lined up on the edge of the raft. Glancing down at her wonderbra and panties, Faith suppressed a smirk. Kay's amazement the first time she had seen them would have been creepy if it wasn't for the fact that her interest was completely non-sexual and totally understandable given her bloomers and vest combo.

"Remember what I told you about diving?" She asked the older woman.

Kay nodded, curling her toes around the edge of the raft.

"On go." Faith told them, raising her hand over her head and crouching. "Go!"

Holding back, Faith waited until Mallie and Kay had jumped before she began her own dive. Opening her eyes underwater, she followed the two other slayers down towards the Stargate.

**l**

Jon grinned as the Stargate opened with the familiar rush of energy and started forward, leading his team up the ramp. He stopped just shy of the event horizon, letting Andrew walk through first. With a glance at Jon and a shrug of his shoulders, Oz followed the young watcher, leaving Jool and Jon behind. The titian-haired slayer hung back, staring at the rippling surface with fascination.

"What does it feel like?" She asked.

"Cold." Jon told her honestly, placing one hand on her back and steering her firmly forwards. "Then you're there. Piece of cake." He promised.

As he tensed his arm to push her through, she stepped forward, leaving him standing at the top of the ramp with an outstretched arm. He looked up at the control room window and raised his arm further in salute as he stepped backwards. His last sight of the SGC was of Hank nodding at him while, sat below him, Walter waved.

Then his boot scraped against stone and he turned around to see his team already spread out across the clearing. Jogging lightly down from the Stargate platform, he joined them. As this was strictly a recon mission, they were all dressed in SGC-issued 'civilian' clothing. He'd had a nasty moment earlier when Andrew had baulked at wearing it but fortunately Oz had taken the boy aside and convinced him to change his mind with a few short words. He'd give a weeks pay just to know what the young werewolf had said. Behind him, the wormhole shut off.

"All clear." Oz told him, sniffing the air. Somehow, he had found the time to dye his hair black.

Jon stared at him. "Okay." He said slowly. "We need to work on our communication skills. Anything else I should know about?"

Oz concentrated and held his hand up so that Jon could see the way his fingernails lengthened into sharp claws as fur appeared on the back of his hand. Slowly, the changes reversed until his hand looked normal again.

"Cool." Jon said. "You and the Doc take the village. Andrew and I'll see if we can track down Papa. Maintain radio silence until we meet back here in two hours."

Jool frowned as he strode out of the clearing, Andrew hurrying after him. "Doc?" She asked Oz. He shrugged.

**l**

The problem was that the Stargate was just too far down. By the time they reached it, they only had time to grab it and swim up for a few seconds before they had to let go to return to the surface. They had spent most of the morning and a sizeable chunk of the afternoon engaged in the futile exercise. Now Faith sat alone on the edge of the cliff, absent-mindedly chewing on a stick of dried meat as she stared out to sea.

If only someone had left behind an aqua-lung or some shit like that. But no! That would be too easy. Faith sighed as she threw the dried meat over the edge of the cliff. There must be something they could do. Wandering back into the courtyard, she caught sight of Mallie refilling a water bag from the well and she frowned thoughtfully.

"How many of those we got now?" She asked.

**l**

Oz was sniffing conspicuously as they entered the village. "Something's not right." He said.

"You think?" Jool said, squinting down the deserted road running down the middle of the village. "Where is everyone?"

"Not that." Oz said, frowning.

"What is it?" Jool stopped to ask him.

Oz sniffed again, deeply. "I don't know." He said. What was that scent? Dry and rotten, it tickled his nostrils, making him want to sneeze.

"Great." Jool said, continuing forward. "Certain death, here we come. I can't believe I let- Ooh! Do you see what I see?"

Oz raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"A pub!" Jool said, smiling. "Come on."

Grabbing his arm, she towed Oz towards the timber-framed building, whisking them through the open doorway into the cool room beyond. Dark flagstones paved the floor and a fire burned brightly in an open fireplace. Lying on a red rug in front of the fire, a tawny coloured dog opened its eyes at their entry. Closing them again, the dog sighed. Oz frowned as Jool pulled him up to the bar.

"What can I get you?" The barman, a thickset man in his late forties, asked.

"I don't suppose you have a vodka tonic?" Jool asked. "No? Beer then! You must have beer?"

"Snaggletongue, Old Horson's or Hopping Hare?" The barman asked, clearly relieved to be back on more familiar ground.

"Ooh... which would you recommend?"

The barman nodded and started pouring. "The Hare." He said, setting a tankard down in front of her. "'Tis thrice hopped."

Jool took a sip. "Mmm... it's good." She said as the barman placed another metal tankard down in front of Oz. "How much?"

"Two shesh'na." The barman told her, wiping his hands on the towel tucked into his waist.

"Still using shesh'na?" Jool asked, remembering what she had been told about the alien currency when she was given it back at the SGC as she handed him the money.

"Shesh'na was good enough for my father, and it was good enough for his father, and his father, and his father before him. It is good enough for me." The barman said stoutly.

Sensing that Jool had the barman well in hand as she immediately agreed with him and deplored the recent fashion for using naquada as money, Oz picked up his pint and moved closer to the fire. Sitting at a table with his back to the wall, he stretched down his hand to stroke the dog's head. It opened its eyes again and whined, looking up at him.

"Good girl." Oz told the dog. She sighed and laid her head back down on her paws, going back to sleep.

**l**

With two water bags filled with air tied around her waist, Faith was the first one to dive from the raft this time. The airbags made it harder for her to swim down but the further they got the more they deflated and the easier it was. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Black spots were dancing at the edge of her vision by the time she reached the Stargate and she clung to it with one arm, struggling with the knots that tied her airbags to the vine wrapped around her waist. Freeing one, she undid the knot that kept it sealed, holding it tightly shut. Raising it to her mouth, she inhaled.

There was barely enough for one breath but she immediately felt better, looking around her as Mallie and Kay joined her. They had stopped before they reached the Stargate in order to use one of their airbags each.

Faith knew that they were taking a huge risk. At this depth they were supposed to breathe specially blended oxygen or some bull like that. She was banking on their enhanced abilities. Hopefully it would mean that they wouldn't die because they used animal organs they'd blown up like balloons to breathe underwater. 'Cause that would be a really shitty way to die.

Realising that Kay and Mallie were both trying their hardest to raise the 'Gate, Faith stopped thinking and started acting. It was after all, what she was best at. Only stopping her efforts when Kay let go to fumble for her last airbag, Faith took the opportunity to get a good look around.

Noticing something she hadn't seen before, Faith swam further down the side of the Stargate once she had also taken her last breath. Grabbing hold of one end of the cable tied around the gate, Faith tugged. The cable pulled taut, disappearing underneath a boulder. Faith yanked, banging her hip painfully into the side of the 'Gate as her action pulled her closer to it.

That gave her an idea. Placing her feet against the 'Gate, she pulled, freeing a few more metres of the cable. Repositioning her grip, she gave it one final heave before she had to let go to swim up to the surface.

Mallie and Kay were already on the raft when she reached it, blowing up their airbags again. Faith swam over to join them, pulling herself out of the water and onto the raft. Sitting on the side of the raft, her legs dangling in the cool ocean, Faith untied the empty bags at her waist.

"What was that rope you were pulling?" Mallie asked.

Faith shrugged, saving her breath for Bambi's stomach. At least, she thought it was Bambi's stomach. It could belong to any one of the animals they'd eaten since they arrived.

"It's tied to the Stargate." Faith told her as she knotted the airbag shut and reattached it to her waist. "Figured we could maybe use it to pull the damn thing up but it's buried under a ton of rubble."

"There's one on the other side too." Kay said, shrugging as Faith finished blowing up her second airbag.

"Really?" Faith asked, standing. "Huh." Why two? What had the metal cables been used for? She looked around at the others. "Ready?"

"Yes." Mallie told her as Kay nodded.

Faith stepped up to the edge of the raft and the other two slayers copied her. In unison, they dived.

**l**

"Let me do the talking this time." Jon told Andrew as they approached the one-level farmhouse.

The steps up to the veranda creaked as he walked up them and Jon rapped smartly on the front door. He heard shuffling footsteps from inside and then the door was jerked open to reveal the man who had been chasing Faith and Mallie. Jon grinned.

"Hi." He said, and slapped down Andrew's hand, upraised in a Vulcan greeting. "We're looking for a friend of ours. Name of Faith." He showed the man a picture of her. "Wondered if you'd seen her."

"Never seen her before." The man said, breathing fumes all over Jon.

"Really?" Jon's friendly smile disappeared. "Because she was last seen with your daughter."

To emphasis his point, he showed him a picture of Mallie as well. Her father blinked and squinted. Peering closer at the photograph, he scratched his head.

"Thass Malina!" He slurred, poking the photograph with a dirty finger for good measure. "Ungrateful bitch."

**l**

"Oi, Tiff!"

Busy sparring with Buffy in the gym, Tiffany frowned. "What?" She shouted back, ducking under a blow.

"You got a delivery."

Tiffany stopped moving, her eyes bright. Jon! He hadn't forgotten her after all. After over a week, she had been starting to despair. Buffy's foot connected with her chest and the youngest slayer sailed backwards through the air, landing on her back on the mats with a loud smack and sliding the last few feet to the door.

Tiffany jumped to her feet. "Thanks Buffy!" She yelled, racing out of the door.

"Hey!" Buffy protested. "We're not finished yet."

Following at a more sedate pace, she tracked the young slayer down in the lobby as she ripped brown paper from a medium-sized box. Noticing Xander hovering discretely, she sidled up to him.

"Did I miss another birthday?" She muttered out of the side of her mouth.

Xander chuckled. "Try November the tenth." He said before explaining. "Jon promised to send her a case of Twinkies before he left. Don't know what's in the other box."

Noticing the second, much larger box for the first time, Buffy frowned. Did it just _move_? She watched as Tiffany began to rip the paper off to expose a large cardboard box with holes in the sides. Wait a sec... Moving? Holes? Beside her, Xander groaned.

"He didn't." The one-eyed carpenter said.

Tiffany pulled the cardboard flaps open, peering inside. An excited shriek filled the large room and Buffy and Xander shared a look.

"He did." They said together.

"She's so cute!" Tiffany sighed, scooping a white ball of fluff out of the box and cradling it carefully in her arms as she stood. Noticing Buffy, she bounced over to her. "Can I keep her? Can I? Can I? Can I?"

Buffy sighed, glancing up at Xander. Then she made the fatal mistake of looking at the puppy. Milky blue eyes stared beseechingly at her before the small dog yawned and shook her head. She looked exactly like a little polar bear cub. Buffy melted.

"You have to look after her, and clean up after her and take her for walks." She heard herself saying.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Tiffany gushed, hugging her. Trapped between them, the puppy whine and Tiffany sprang away. "I'll take good care of you, won't I?" She asked the animal. "Yes!"

"What're you gonna call her?" Xander asked, amused.

Tiffany didn't even have to think about it. "Twinkie." She declared.

**l**

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Jool looked up at Jon. "Jon!" She said, surprised. She glanced at her watch, straightening up on her barstool.

"We thought we'd come find you." Jon said and Jool glanced over to where Andrew was joining Oz at a table near the fire. "Who's your friend?" He asked, hopping up on a barstool next to her.

"Oh, Jon this is Malik. He owns this inn. Malik, this is Jon. He's helping us look for Faith."

"Hi." Jon said. "Can we get four more of those?" He asked, pointing to Jool's tankard.

Malik nodded. "Sure."

Jool squirmed on her seat, uncomfortable with the silence that stretched on as Malik poured their drinks. "So..." she said eventually. "Malik and I were just talking about the time Malina rescued his grandson from drowning in the river." She stressed the girl's name carefully. "When was that, Malik?"

"Aah..." Malik scratched his stubbly jaw, frowning as he thought. "Must be two years ago now."

Jon frowned, clueless, as Jool shot a significant look at him. Malik set two tankards down in front of them and walked away to serve Andrew and Oz?

"What?" Jon asked as soon as he was out of earshot.

"I was called two years ago." She said.

"By who? The Queen?"

"Willow actually." Jool told him. "I became a slayer two years ago Jon. Did you learn anything while you were at the Council house?"

"Buffy hits hard and Xander keeps a secret stash of Twinkies in his toolbox?" Jon said as Malik rejoined them. "So whadda ya know about Malina's Betrothed?" He asked the man.

Malik shivered. "The Prior." He said darkly.

**l**

Faith sucked air into her starving lungs as soon as her head broke the surface. Treading water, she wiped her eyes with a wet hand. A wave slapped into her face and she shook her head, sending droplets of water flying everywhere as Mallie and Kay cried out in protest. Faith sighed as she caught sight of the last of the sun as it sank below the horizon.

"Quittin' time." She called out. "You guys go ahead; I just wanna check something out."

Kay and Mallie swam off without protest, which went to show just how tired they all were. Faith's limbs felt light and shaky as she dragged herself onto the raft and started to fill up her airbags. Looking up once she had finished, she waved back to Mallie and stood on the edge of the raft. Raising her arms above her head, she jumped and her golden body seemed to hang suspended in the last ray of sunlight for a moment before she plunged into the water.

As soon as the momentum of her dive began to slow, she began to swim, angling her body away from the Stargate in a different direction. Pausing briefly to take a breath of air from the bladder tied around her waist, Faith continued on towards the MCT (Mushroom Control Thingy). Her eyes narrowed as she caught a glimpse of something not too far off as she swam around the alien device.

Horrified by her first good look at the console, Faith reached inside the central button, pushing her floating hair away from her face with the other hand. She hadn't known that these things _could_ break. Thinking about it though, Earth didn't have one either. Walter dialled the planets. Had theirs broken too?

After taking her last breath of air and reattaching the bag to her belt, Faith swam slowly over to the object she had spotted earlier. Her heart began to race as soon as she got close enough to definitely recognise it and she swam faster. Reaching the half-buried MALP she picked up one of the smaller rocks lying on top of the machine and threw it away. Grabbing the case it had been lying on, she tugged it free and kicked off the ocean floor, swimming towards the surface, taking the case with her.

Looking up the cliff, she had to admit that once again, she hadn't thought things through. Fortunately, someone had already lowered the chair rope for her and she gratefully swam towards it. Sitting on the branch, the case on her lap and one hand clutching the rope, Faith was reminded of the first time she'd been pulled up this cliff. They'd made definite progress since then, although she wasn't sure if the blow of the broken MCT was one they could recover from. How did you dial a 'Gate without an MCT or a shit-load of computers?

Reaching the top of the cliff, she placed the case on the castle floor, pushing it away from the edge, before she pulled herself over the side of the cliff. Standing on legs that continued to feel shaky no matter how many times she made that trip, Faith grinned at Kay, thanking her.

"No problem." Kay told her, coiling the vine rope. "Mallie's cooking dinner. What's that?"

"I don't know." Faith said, picking up the case. "But it's from Earth."

Intrigued, Kay put the rope down and followed her to the courtyard where Mallie was laying steaks out on the cooking stones. Reverently, Faith set the container down on the floor and ran her hands over it.

"Where did you find that?" Mallie asked.

"Not far from the Stargate."

"It's from Earth." Kay told her and Mallie moved closer.

Faith popped the catches back. "It could be full of water." She warned.

"Just open it." Kay urged.

Faith flipped the lid back and caught her breath at the sight of the contents. "Jackpot." She breathed.

"What is it?" Mallie asked.

"It's food!" Faith exclaimed, grabbing handfuls. "Pre-packaged meals and cereal bars." She said, handing them over her shoulder to the others and picking up more. "Coffee and... Fuck me!"

"What?" Kay asked, alarmed.

"Chocolate." Faith drew the word out as she dropped the coffee back into the case to scoop out a small bar. "It's... nine years out of date, but I don't give a damn." She said, tearing it open and sinking her teeth into it. Sweet and creamy, it tasted just like chocolate should and she moaned helplessly.

"Damn, that is good." She mumbled around her mouthful. "Wanna try?"

**l**

Hank looked at the fresh faces of SG-13 as they sat around the conference table. "Well?" He asked.

"I think it's safe to say Faith won't be going back there." Captain O'Neil told him, glancing around his team.

"Really." Hank said flatly. Was there anything else he already knew that they cared to tell him? O'Neil grinned crookedly and a nagging sense of familiarity struck Hank.

"The Prior that Vala Mal Doran saw in the village? He's Betrothed to the girl Faith's travelling with." The Captain said and Hank sat forward, listening closely. "Her father set it up."

"She's a slayer too!" Andrew Wells added.

"There's a slight possibility that she _might_ be a slayer." Captain O'Neil corrected, frowning at the blonde man.

"She does fit the profile." Doctor Wilson explained to the Hank.

He frowned. "What does it mean if she is?" He asked.

"Andrew's researching it." The Captain told him.

"I thought I'd start by cross-referencing any gaps in the Slayer line with major events in the galaxy's history." Andrew said excitedly. "Giles always says that cross-referencing is key to efficient research."

"Save it for the briefing." Hank told him, not unkindly.

Andrew subsided, already planning his opening statements. The whole 'The world is older than you know...' speech was old. It was so time to drag it into the twenty-first century.

"So where's this Prior now?" General Landry asked. The man had failed to make an appearance on any of the tapes of the Stargate clearing. "Still on the planet?"

"He left the first day Faith did." Jool told him.

"Using the ring platform in the village." Jon added.

"He left by ship?" Hank asked and the Captain shrugged in reply. "Why didn't they invade?"

"The planet's already converted to Origin." Doctor Wilson explained. "Malik, the village innkeeper, was very prosaic about it. I got the impression that while most of the population is devout in their belief, he and his family are merely paying lip service to the Ori."

"I see." Hank said, troubled.

"So this Prior started showing up a couple of months ago and converted. He singled the kid's father out from the off and then, the day the Ori invaded Chulak, the Prior unexpectedly shows up and talks to Papa for hours in a private room at the village inn." Jon said. "He takes a room for three nights and goes to dinner at their farm the day after. The next day-"

"They ran." Hank finished wearily.

Jool took up the tale. "They bumped into some friends of Malina's father. A Betrothal is a major rite of passage on their world and when they heard what she had done, they flew them both back to the planet with the intention of contacting the Prior. Fortunately, Faith and Malina escaped."

"So where are they now?" Hank asked.

SG-13 looked at each other.

"We still don't know." Captain O'Neil admitted. "We do know that they definitely went to P3X-492 so we could check it out again. See if we can pick up anything SG-7 might have missed first time."

Hank nodded. "I'll schedule the mission for two days time at fourteen hundred." He told them. "Good job."

Several hours later, Faith had to admit that alien slayers and chocolate were not a good mix. As exhausted as she was, Mallie and Kay were still alert and wide-awake. At least they'd finally stopped bouncing off the walls.

"What is Earth like?" Mallie asked, unconsciously licking her lips as she glanced over at the closed case.

Faith shrugged. "Whadda ya wanna know?"

Mallie and Kay glanced at each other.

"What do you do?" Kay asked.

Faith laughed humourlessly. "Me? I work for the Council."

Mallie frowned. "What is the Council?"

"Used to be, the Council was a bunch of uptight British assholes who told the slayer where to go and what to kill. If she didn't obey, they killed her and moved on to the next girl to be called." Faith told them. "Then they got themselves blown up by the First. Now that G-man runs it, it's more of a support network. Helping slayers fight and have a normal life and all that shit."

"The First?"

"G-man?" Mallie asked at the time.

"G-man is Giles, B's watcher. Mine too for a bit... 'til we got sent Wesley. We kicked the First Evil's incorporeal ass two years ago. That's when B got Red to activate all the potentials."

"What's a potential?"

"Potential slayer. Red activated all of 'em. Even you guys. No more one girl in all the world. Well... Galaxy." Faith shrugged. She still wasn't sure how that worked. Were there times when an off-world slayer had been called?

"But you were a slayer before? And so was Bee?" Kay asked, confused. "How, if there's only one?"

"B drowned while she was fighting the Master in his lair. Fortunately, the Xan-man knows CPR and brought her back to life..."

**l**

The next morning, Faith was the first person to wake. Eagerly, she hurried to the 'Gate room. It was a clear and sunny day and the sea looked calm. As she went about the morning chores, relighting the fire and drawing fresh water from the well, she wondered what else was down there. She shook Mallie and Kay awake, chasing them out into the courtyard.

"Beef stew or mac 'n' cheese?" She asked the lethargic pair. "There's cereal bars. If you can work out a way to boil water, you can try coffee." She offered.

Slowly, Mallie got to her feet, hanging a full water bag in the pit over the fire pit in silent reply.

"You're shitting me?" Faith exclaimed. It was that easy? "Now all we gotta do is find something to use as mugs."

**l**

Minutes before the alarm went off Andrew bounced out of his bed. He was still that excited about working in NORAD. Personally, he was hoping the thrill never wore off. Imagine, if anyone asked him what he did, he had to tell them that it was classified. That was so cool!

Throwing open the door to his spare room, Andrew walked inside. Clothing lay strewn everywhere, the floor, the bed, a chair. There were rows and rows of clothes jammed onto the clothes rails he'd rushed out to buy.

Why did he have nothing to wear?

**l**

"How do you want to do this?" Kay asked Faith as the three slayers walked up the steps to the 'Gate room.

"I figure we load the cases on to the raft, concentrate on the 'Gate until lunch, then get them up the cliff." Faith said.

Giggling, Malina ran past them to dive over the cliff edge. After a moments wait to make sure she was out of harm's way, Faith followed her. Left alone in the ruined castle, Kay shrugged and dived off the cliff.

**l**

Jool looked up at the quiet knock on her open door. "Oz!" She greeted the werewolf with a smile. "What's up?"

Scratching his head, Oz wandered into her lab. "I've got fleas." He told her.

Taken aback, Jool recoiled. "Fleas?"

"Think I picked them up off-world." Oz said.

"Sit down." Jool told him, reaching for her box of disposable latex gloves. "Let's have a look."

Snapping the gloves into place, she stood and moved around from behind her desk. Standing behind Oz, she parted his black hair, examining his scalp.

"Hmmm... yup." She said, catching sight of one. "Definitely fleas." She sighed. "I don't know what to prescribe. What normally works?"

"Never been a problem before."

"Okay." Jool sighed again. "Wait here." She peeled off her gloves and dumped them in a hazardous waste bin on her way out.

Left alone in her lab, Oz amused himself by counting the diplomas. He noticed that they were the only personal touch in the whole room. She didn't even have a plant. Tapping a beat out on the frame of his chair, he waited for Jool to return.

"Right!" She said from the corridor, entering the room and closing the door. "We'll try a standard nit treatment before I start calling the local vets. Use the locker room and come back here afterwards so I that can check if it worked."

Oz nodded as she handed him a small box, wondering where she'd got it from.

"Oh!" Jool said as he got up to go. "Let me get a couple of specimens for the biologists first."

Oz sat back down, waiting as she rummaged in cupboards. "Where did you get it?"

"Huh?" Jool looked over her shoulder at him and Oz held up the box. "Oh! The medical stores. We've got all kinds of stuff... and the equipment!"

"Good?"

"State of the art!" Jool told him, her head and shoulders deep in the cupboard she was ransacking. She sighed and sat back on her heels. "Okay... all I can find are my Petri dishes, so they'll have to do."

Standing, she grabbed a pair of tweezers from a drawer and advanced. Placing the Petri dishes within easy grabbing distance, she began to comb through Oz's hair with her fingers, searching for more of the lice, tweezers poised.

"Aha!" Grabbing the flea, Jool quickly transferred it to a Petri dish, putting the lid on to prevent it from escaping. "Settling in okay?" She asked Oz as she resumed her search.

"Yeah. You?"

"Good! Yeah..." Jool captured a second flea and managed to trap it the same Petri dish as the first. "Wish I could get out more." She sighed. "I can't wait until I pass my driving test."

"Don't say that."

"What?"

"The w-word. Bad things can happen."

Jool frowned. "From saying wait or wi-Ow!"

"What?" Oz asked, thoroughly freaked now.

"Fleabite." Jool told him. "My fault for not wearing gloves." Snagging one last flea, she decided not to push her luck with the same Petri dish and used a fresh one.

"Not good." Oz said. "Werewolf, remember?"

Jool froze, her eyes flying up to meet his. Slowly, she relaxed. "I don't think it works like that." She said, putting down the tweezers. "Just to be on the safe side, I'll go tell the on-duty doctor that I want to learn how the DNA profiler works. You go shower."

**l**

By the time they managed to excavate and unload the MALP it was early afternoon. While Faith and Mallie brought up the last few cases, Kay started to climb the cliff. As the quickest slayer up the cliff, they had decided that she should scale the cliff and lower the rope chair so that the others could attach the cases. She had just finished hauling it back up when Mallie clambered into the room.

"Faith is still at the bottom." She said. "There are more cases."

Kay threw the rope chair back over the cliff and together, the two slayers pulled it back up again. Faith was sitting in the middle of the branch, cases dangling below her. Kay hadn't really expected anything different. Faith was clearly uncomfortable with the long climb, despite the guide ropes she had put into place and it was actually quicker to pull the Tau'ri slayer up rather than let her climb.

"Can we open them now?" Mallie asked Faith.

Stooping to pick several of the cases up, Faith froze. "I was gonna wait until dinner. But we can have chocolate now instead." She hastily promised as the girl pouted.

**l**

Spotting Jool as she walked past a junction, Jon put on a burst of speed to catch up with her. The redheaded slayer looked coolly determined, her curls pulled back into a long complicated looking plait that started at her forehead and her white lab coat flapping as she strode purposefully through the SGC hallway.

"Hey! Doc... wait up." Jon called and she stopped, turning around with a slight frown.

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just headed to the mess and wondered if you cared to join me. They have cake." Jon tempted.

"Oh." She glanced over her shoulder. "I can't. I have to...uh...write a report."

"What report?" Jon asked, knowing that she'd already written her report on P4X-32Z.

"It's one for the infirmary." Jool said, looking straight at him. "I'm behind on a lot of my patient reports." Her eyes dropped to the floor.

Which was the truth and which was the lie? Jon still didn't know her well enough to be able to tell. The sudden thought that she could be the mother of his unborn child and he might never know if she chose to lie to him about it, terrified him.

"Cool." He said, deciding to drop it. "Catch you later."

Jool frowned as she watched him walk away, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. Turning once he was out of sight, she hurried back to her office. Oz was waiting for her there, sat on the same seat he had used last time. Jool closed the door.

"You'll be pleased to hear that my DNA is still one hundred percent human." She said, pulling on a pair of latex gloves and grabbing a comb from her desk. "Apart from the Ancient gene that is. Still itchy?" She asked as she examined his head.

He nodded.

"Well... the only ones I can find are all dead." She told him, stepping back and peeling off her gloves. "Let me know if it happens again."

"We done?" Oz asked as Jool sat down behind her desk.

"Yup." She said, typing her password into the computer. "The Captain's in the mess if you want to join him."

Oz nodded. "Thanks." He said as he left.

Pulling up his medical file, Jool made a note of the incident. Then, because she still felt guilty, she made a note in the Health and Safety log about the fleabite and added the results of the DNA test to her own records. Sitting back once she was done, she scowled at the computer screen. Doc!

She didn't like the nickname and she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew why. It was Jon's way of putting their relationship back onto a professional level. She had no problem with that. She really didn't. But it unsettled her. An eighteen year old shouldn't be that mature!

Unless... Jool suddenly remembered the day they had arrived in Colorado. In the briefing room... Jon's file... What had the General said? _Even his date of birth was classified_. But... he was completely human. Her slayer senses had never been fooled and she could pull up his DNA test results if she wanted to double-check. She did anyway, just to be certain. Yup, totally human.

So, if he wasn't eighteen, then why did he look it? And just how old was he really? Jool rested her hand against her flat stomach. Jon could be the father of her child. How much did she actually know about him?

**l**

By late evening all of the cases had been opened, their contents examined, explained where possible by Faith, and placed in one of three piles. Food, Useful and Junk. Junk was the largest pile by far. There was stuff in there that even Faith didn't recognise. There'd been a chunkier version of Sam's handheld scanner thing but either the batteries were dead or Faith didn't know how to turn it on. The laptop was definitely dead. Still, Faith consoled herself with the sight of the four P-90's lying next to spare magazines in the Useful pile.

It was amazing how good a few home comforts could make a girl feel. Faith ran her fingers through her hair and made a mental note to use the shampoo and conditioner the first chance she got. At least they had a comb now. Faith could kiss the person who'd packed it. It almost made up for the lack of progress with the Stargate.

**l**

There was that smell again. The one from the village yesterday. Oz sniffed. Where was it coming from? Was Jool wearing perfume? He sneezed explosively. Once. Twice.

"Bless you." Jool said.

Oz sniffed, winding his window down. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Jool smiled at him as he drove through Colorado Springs.

Turning into a large car park, he drove past the rows of parked cars. Pulling up outside a bank of automatic doors, Oz turned off the engine.

"Need a lift back?" He asked.

"No. Sally, one of the nurses, is going to pick me up before her shift starts." Jool told him. "Thank you Oz."

"No problem." He said, and sneezed again.

"Bless you." Jool repeated, opening the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Oz nodded as she slammed the door shut, starting the engine. Slowly, he pulled away, leaving Jool stood outside the building. She smiled excitedly as she stared at the sign above the door. Her first American mall! She couldn't wait!

**l**

They had just settled down in the new sleeping bags on their old bed of bracken when Kay turned around to face Faith. "Faith?

"Yeah?" Faith said, her eyes still closed.

"What happened after B defeated the Master?" She asked.

"She partied." Faith said as if it should be obvious and then realised that she had been so sidetracked by their questions last night that she had never really finished the story. "It's Scooby tradition." She explained, opening her eyes to look at the older slayer. "Save the world, then go party."

"What's Scooby?" Kay asked, making herself more comfortable. Behind her, Mallie snored.

"Not what, who." Faith sighed and rolled over to face her. "B's a Scooby. So's Xan-man, Red and the G-man. They're like the core Scooby Gang. Then you've got Angel, Cordy, Oz, Anya, Spike, Wes, Tara, Andrew..." Faith sighed again, more heavily this time and rolled onto her back. "Course, most of 'em are dead now."

"Who?" Kay asked in a small voice, fascinated despite herself.

"Well, B's died more times than I can count. Don't know if she counts 'cos she keeps comin' back." Faith said. "Tara died three years ago. Anya and Spike died in the battle against the First, two years ago. Cordy finally bit the bullet early last year after a six month coma and we haven't heard from Angel or Wes since LA."

"So... B, Red, G-man, Xan-man, Oz and Andrew?" Kay asked.

"And D!" Faith remembered with a smile.

"Tell me about them." Kay invited.

"Well, Oz dropped off the map four years ago after Red got together with Tara." Faith said. "She started dating Kennedy after Tara died." She grimaced.

Kay frowned. "Red, Tara and Kennedy are all female?"

"Yeah." Faith said and then looked at Kay when the silence dragged on too long. "Gotta problem with that?"

"No." Kay hurriedly assured. "It's just..."

"What?"

"I've never heard of such a thing." Kay explained. "Is it common on Earth?"

Faith found herself laughing softly at the bemused look on Kay's face. "You could say that."

**l**

Oz pulled the covers up around his ears, shivering despite the sweat streaming from his body. His throat tickled and he coughed, a harsh, hacking sound. Slowly, his shaking hand emerged from under the bedcovers and he reached for the glass of water he had left on the nightstand. Propping himself up on his elbow, he sipped at the water. The last thing he wanted to do was kick off another round of vomiting. His stomach cramped at the memory and Oz hurriedly replaced the water, eyeing the bathroom door ruefully as he pulled the covers back up.

He hadn't felt too bad when he'd gone to sleep. His throat had been sore and he'd been sneezing all evening but he certainly hadn't thought he'd wake up halfway through the night to throw up for an hour before he finally managed to drag himself back to bed.

What a time to get the flu! They were due to visit another planet tomorrow. Or was it today now? He didn't really care. Would they make the whole team stay behind or just him? Suddenly too hot, Oz kicked the duvet off the bed.

**l**

Mallie waited until after breakfast to announce that she wasn't going to help them with the Stargate that day.

"Why not?" Kay demanded to know.

"Because it is not working!" Mallie said. "We have been doing the same thing for weeks now and it is time to admit that the 'Stargate' is stuck. _We_ are stuck!"

Kay rose to her feet as the young blonde stormed out of the castle, intent on following her. Faith laid her hand on Kay's forearm to stop her and the older woman looked down at it as though she had never seen a hand before.

"Let her go." Faith advised from her seat on the ground. "She'll be back." She shrugged. "Where else is she gonna go?"

Kay nodded, still frowning as she stared after the youngest slayer. What had prompted that outburst? It was so unlike the normally sunny-tempered Mallie.

"I'm gonna make a start." Faith said, rising. "You with me?"

**l**

"You look almost as bad as I feel." Cam greeted Sam as he joined her at the table in the Odyssey's mess. "What's up?"

"I was up late working on the yield calculations for the jump." Sam explained, stifling a yawn. She took another sip of her third cup of coffee as she looked at Cam. "What's your excuse?"

"Aw, I'm just having some trouble getting to sleep." Cam told her, picking up his toast. "Seems like I spend every night staring at my ceiling."

"Something on your mind?" Sam asked as he chewed.

Cam shook his head, swallowing. "No more than usual."

"Hey."

Looking up at Jackson's soft greeting, Cam bit back an exclamation as he caught sight of the man. Fortunately, Sam had no such qualms.

"Jesus Daniel! Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Daniel asked. "Oh. I haven't slept yet. I was up all night finishing the prophecy."

"You've finished translating it?" Cam asked.

"Yeah..." Daniel said absently, distracted. "Ooh, coffee."

"Daniel!" Sam said sharply. "No coffee. Prophecy, then bed."

"Right." Daniel nodded, handing Cam a sheet of paper. "Bed."

Sam stared after him as he shambled off. "I don't think he slept last night either..." She said thoughtfully.

Engrossed in the prophecy, Cam didn't hear her. When he was finished, he pushed it over to Sam for her to read as well. Like him, she was frowning by the end.

"Well, that's vague." She said.

"Now what?" Cam asked rhetorically.

Taking him seriously, Sam considered the question. "Isn't Atlantis due to check in a few days after we arrive?"

**l**

"Hey."

Jool looked up from her computer at the handsome Captain lounging in her doorway.

"I know, I know." The English slayer said, pushing her chair back from her desk. "Pre-mission check-up. I'm just going now."

"Oz still hasn't arrived." Jon told her. "He's not answering his cell or his house phone." He continued as she frowned and checked her watch.

"But we're due to leave in an hour." Jool said automatically, still frowning as her mind raced. Pieces of a rather unpleasant jigsaw started to slot into place.

"Not any more. Landry postponed the mission. He wants us to go check his apartment out."

"Good idea." She said, winding a scarlet curl around her finger as she frowned. Jon didn't tell her that it had been his.

"Jon?"

"Yeah?"

Jool bit her lip, her yellow eyes worried. The tip of her finger was turning a dark purple.

"Spit it out Doc." Jon told her with a sigh.

"He had fleas. Yesterday. Then, on the way to the mall, he kept sneezing and he looked flushed. I didn't notice it at the time but..." Jool released the tightly wound curl, looking stricken. "In the first recording of Faith, there was a dog that died. It's a bit of a stretch but what if there's some sort of canine flu doing the rounds on that planet and he's been exposed?"

"Aw, crap." Jon said and turned, heading for the door. Jool hurried after him.

"Why the hell didn't you say something?" He asked. "SGC protocol clearly says-"

"I didn't think." Jool said in a small voice.

"No, you didn't." Jon snapped and regretted it in the silence that followed. He latched onto something she had mentioned earlier. "Fleas?"

**l**

Faith turned the old-fashioned diver's helmet around in her hands, getting an idea of the weight and feel of the thing. Tipping her head back, she looked up and out at the blue sky through the hole in the ceiling. Where had _that_ come from?

Bored while she and Kay were waiting for the military rations to digest properly, Faith had chosen to wander aimlessly around the castle, eventually finding herself in the tallest room in the tallest tower. With an antique diving helmet.

What the fuck?

Frowning as she struggled to find a way to reconcile her newest find to the little she knew about the planet, Faith carried the helmet back to the courtyard. Kay was busily blowing up airbags (Mallie's defection meant that they now had three each) and didn't notice as Faith set the helmet down in the useful pile.

Mallie hadn't returned to the castle during their lunch break. There were signs that she'd been back while they were gone so Faith wasn't worried. She'd come back when she wanted to come back... and hopefully in a better mood.

**l**

Jon rapped impatiently on Oz's front door for the second time. He glanced at Jool, dressed in SGC fatigues and a tight black vest, as she stood next to him while they waited and his mouth went dry. Behind them, Andrew fidgeted. Right, focus! Jon blinked rapidly, knocked again and was instantly shushed by Jool.

"Did you hear that?" She asked, her head cocked to one side as she listened intently.

"No." Andrew said as Jon frowned. Hear what?

"There it is again." Jool told them.

"What?" Jon asked, starting to get annoyed.

"There's definitely someone in there." Jool told them quietly, pointing at the locked door.

Jon looked at the pair of them. "Don't suppose either of you know how to pick a lock? No?" He sighed.

Jool reared back, kicking the door beside the lock. "Like that?" She asked with a smile as the door flew open, crashing back into the wall behind it.

Not quite what he had in mind, Jon mused as he moved into the apartment, taking point. But if it worked...

"Oz?" He called, peering around a doorframe into his teammate's living room.

The room was tidy and uncluttered. The only personal possession Jon could see was a battered guitar propped in a corner. There was no sign of Oz. A closed door further up the corridor rattled suddenly and Jon crept towards it, glancing back at Andrew and Jool.

"Oz? Are you okay?" Jool asked close behind Jon as he reached the door.

The door shook in its frame as something heavy hit it and Jon froze, one hand hovering above the doorknob as his eyes met Jool's.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Andrew informed them. "The Dark Side is strong here."

Jon rolled his eyes and opened the door.

Crouched on the other side, a slathering monster snarled at them, drool dripping from its jaws. Icy horror freezing his spine, Jon only had time to register the pointed ears, long snout and sharp teeth before the creature sprang.

**l**

_By the Calling of the Many, the enemy of Ancients past is alerted,_

_By the visitation of the Unholy Mother and Descended they are decided._

_Through the starry pool they descend, crashing through the beachhead to the shores beyond,_

_The Unholy-Made-Human draws breath and the Dark One flees the first battle._

_Britannia's sleeping hope lies frozen in Avalon. Awakened, he may stem the tide in time_

_For the board to be made anew by Eygpt's silver-tongued plague._

_Questers must seek 1234567 in order to prevail against the fiery rage that sweeps across galaxies_

_Unless the Dark Killer leads her Amazons home, the Earth herself is doomed to death_

_And the Ancient fates are sealed._

1234567 is an Untranslated word.


	10. Plagued

**A/N**

Once again I'm very sorry for the lateness of the update. First my PC died and then I made a shocking discovery about a friend of mine that's had huge Real Life repercussions. I won't tell you what it was, just that truth really is _far_ stranger than fiction! Needless to say, I've had other things on my mind.

On the plus side, college is going well, my health isn't too bad and I finished a chapter. Yay!

Enjoy.

**l**

**Plagued**

**l**

Jon felt the creature's damp, fetid breath on his face and then he was body-slammed down the hallway, skidding on the wooden floor. He glanced back as it wriggled free of Jool's grip and raced for the door, the slayer in hot pursuit. He shouted, a wordless cry of warning, and then they were gone.

Jon swore, picking himself up off the floor. A few metres away, Andrew uncurled from his protective ball, peering around nervously.

"Was that...?" Jon asked and Andrew nodded.

"Oz." He intoned, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "The man who tamed the wolf within. Or not."

Jon threw his phone at him as he strode past. "Call the General."

"Me?" Andrew squeaked as they left Oz's apartment. "Why me?"

"You want to follow them on foot?" Jon asked pointedly, dangling his car keys from his fingers as they reached the staircase.

**l**

Jool's feet thudded against the pavement as she ran and her long plait smacked against her back with every step. Ahead, Oz seemed to be making for a small park she'd noticed on their drive to his apartment. There were children in that park. Jool increased her speed.

Too slowly, she started to gain on the werewolf. He reached the open gates of the park before her, heading straight towards the playground area. Running through the gates, Jool angled past a family picnicking nearby, snatching up an orange from their table. Pulling her arm back, Jool threw the fruit as hard as she could.

The citrus splatted open on the back of Oz's head. He stopped and the pieces of fruit that still clung to the back of his canine head fell to the ground. He looked back, snarled, and then sprang towards her. Still panting from the long run to the park, Jool took off, leading the werewolf away from the nearby people and into the nearest bushes.

Ignoring the branches that whipped at her face and bare arms, Jool ran through the undergrowth. As the crashing behind her drew closer, she spotted what she had been looking for and veered off to the right, imaginary breath hot on the back of her neck.

Grabbing hold of the sturdy tree branch, she used her momentum to swing herself upwards until she was holding herself in a handstand on the top of the branch. The sounds of pursuit came nearer. Her stomach twisted.

Oz burst out of the undergrowth, foam dripping from his mouth. As he ran towards her, she adjusted her balance, timing her fall so that she slammed into his back as he ran below her tree.

Clinging on to his waist with her legs, Jool wrapped an arm around his neck, locking it into place with her other hand. Hanging on to him, Jool rode out his attempts to dislodge her. Eventually, he quieted, scrabbling for purchase in the rich-smelling soil before letting out a disturbingly human moan and falling unconscious. Waiting for him to transform, Jool hung on. And on.

She frowned and let go. His head slumped to the ground, long tongue lolling. Why wasn't he transforming? Jool stepped back, fiddling with the end of her plait as she contemplated the insensible werewolf. Far off engines whined on the breeze and a bright light engulfed them both.

Jool looked wildly around her, automatically falling into a defensive position over the werewolf Oz before she recognised the SGC 'Gateroom. She jumped and whirled around at a touch on her elbow.

"How are you?" Caroline asked, trying not to show how the other woman had startled her.

She motioned the medics behind her forward and led the winded slayer over to a corner while they lifted the patient onto the gurney.

Clicking on her penlight, she shone it into each of Jool's eyes in turn, taking note of the cuts and abrasions on her body. Jool's fatigues were ripped and Caroline could see a bloody gash on her thigh. "Any bite wounds?" She pressed and was relieved when the other doctor shook her head.

"I'm fine." Jool told her, waiting impatiently for Caroline to take her pulse while the medics wheeled Oz away. "I should go with them... In case he wakes up."

"Well you're headed there anyway." Caroline said, stepping back with a shrug. "So I see no harm in sharing an elevator."

Following the medics, the two women crowded into the elevator. As it started to rise, Oz began to stir. Before Caroline could register her movement, Jool had grabbed the zat from the single accompanying marine and shot him. Caroline flew to protect her patient.

"Better than a tranquiliser gun." Jool commented as she handed the sheepish marine his weapon back.

"I can't find a pulse." Caroline panicked.

Jool moved the CMO's fingers.

"Oh."

**l**

"Honestly Caroline, you don't need to stitch it. Just a few butterfly sutures will suffice... Really! Ow!"

Jon grinned and then hastily straightened his face as Hank glared at him. "Knock, knock." He said.

"Just a minute!" Caroline called from behind the privacy curtain.

"Don't come in!" Jool added. "Ow!"

"Baby." Hank's mouth twitched at the edges at the sound of his daughter's voice.

"Ow!" Am not... Ow! You didn't use enough anaesthetic for a slayer." Jool complained.

"All finished." Caroline announced, twitching back the curtain.

Jool swung her legs over the edge of the bed, standing as Andrew, Jon and the General stepped forward.

"How're you feeling?" General Landry asked her.

"Good to go." She assured him. "Sir." She remembered to add.

He smiled, chuckling slightly and turning to look at his daughter as she disposed of the bloody swabs into the hazardous waste bin. "Good."

"Now," he continued, his gaze suddenly acute. "Mr Wells has already debriefed me on werewolf history but he assures me that you are the expert in demon biology."

"Oh yes, I minored in it at Oxford." Jool said blithely.

There was a small pause while everyone digested that statement.

"They do that there?" Jon broke the silence.

"Not officially." Jool smiled brightly.

Caroline stepped forward, clipboard in hand. "Daniel is in isolation room one." She informed them.

Jon frowned. Daniel? But he was on board... Oh. She meant Oz. Realising that he had missed what she'd said next, he shrugged and followed everyone as they filed out of the main infirmary. Behind him, Andrew was excitedly filling the Doc in on transporter beams and the Daedalus.

Stopping at the observation room door, Jon reached out and grabbed Andrew by the scruff of the neck.

"Hey!" Andrew protested as he was dragged through the door. "Where's she going?"

"To help Caroline." Jon told him and Hank's eyebrows rose.

Jon mentally cursed his slip. He'd known Caroline since she was a toddler, having been friends with Hank that long. Or rather, _Jack_ had been friends with Hank for that long. He was still just a copy, Jon reminded himself bitterly, focussing his attention on the room below. The Doc was moving wires that had been placed on Oz.

"...physiology is quite different when they are transformed." She was saying in a matter-of-fact tone, her voice sounding tinny as it flowed through the speakers. "These restraints aren't going to be strong enough."

"They're the strongest ones we have." Caroline told her.

The Doc looked up, past him, at Andrew, a smudge of dirt on the end of her nose and a nasty graze on one cheekbone. "I've got manacles in my room..."

"I'm on it." Andrew said, leaving the room.

_Manacles_? C'mon, Ja-Jon. Focus! Ignoring the hormones racing through his body, Jon concentrated on the isolation room.

"I am concerned that he hasn't transformed back yet." The Doc said, hooking Oz up to the last cable and stepping back to reach for a syringe.

"Is that normal?" Caroline asked.

Jon looked away as the Doc inserted the needle. "A normal werewolf couldn't until the moon had set," she said. "But as Oz can normally control... Get out."

"What?" Caroline looked down as Oz opened his eyes.

"Now!" The Doc told her, yanking out the needle and pressing her other hand firmly down on Oz's chest.

Caroline scrambled for the door as one of the restraints on Oz's wrists snapped and the werewolf raised his arm to try to claw at the Doc. She switched hands on his chest to defend herself, the other wrist strap broke and then they were fighting as Caroline slipped through the opening door.

Quickly snapping the ankle restraints, Oz brought his hind legs up and into Jool's stomach. She staggered back, scarlet blooming beneath the rents in her vest.

His heart already in his throat, Jon swore when he noticed the marine outside wavering as he waited for a clear shot with his sidearm. He was running almost before he realised it, a god-almighty crash coming from the speakers in the room behind him, but he didn't dare to slow for a look back.

Then he was outside in the corridor and could see him. Snatching the zat from the marine's holster, he assessed the room at a glance, nudging the gun-happy marine out of the way.

Oz seemed determined to fight and the Doc was clearly finding the lack of space a problem. Most of the medical equipment littered the floor. Moving into the room, Jon came around the side of the Doc and fired.

Oz slumped to the concrete floor and Jon lowered his arm with a sigh. The Doc stepped back, one hand on the slashes on her stomach and Jon stepped forward.

"Hey," he said. "You okay?"

She nodded, turning around. "I had everything under control."

"Ya sure, you betcha." Jon said.

"I did!" She insisted, letting go of her stomach to pick Oz up.

Trying not to show any surprise at the sight (the Doc was about the same height as Andrew while Oz-as-a-werewolf looked to be about Teal'c' height and much heavier) Jon threw the zat back to the marine and righted the gurney. Placing the werewolf back on the bed, the Doc stepped back, her hand once more clutching her stomach.

"Let me see." Caroline ordered, sailing into the room.

The Doc moved her hand to let Caroline examine the wound and Jon noticed for the first time that the smudge on her nose wasn't the only bit of dirt on her. In fact the only clean places on her were the areas around her various cuts and scrapes. Leaves were still clinging to her fancy plait for crying out loud! She looked up at him and Jon quickly glanced away.

"I'd recommend administering a double dose of tranquiliser before he wakes up again." The Doc said. "Normally it would be a triple one but I don't know if his body could cope with it right now. We need to start him on a triple dose of broad-spectrum antibiotics until we get the results of his bloodworks back and can figure out what would be best to use."

"The only thing you're doing is going back to the infirmary to get that looked at." Caroline interrupted her to say.

"Then you hit the showers." Jon added. "That's an order."

She raised a dirty eyebrow and sauntered slowly from the room.

Caroline looked around the destroyed room. "Tranquilisers..." She sighed in despair.

"Manacles!" Andrew announced, choosing that moment to walk into the room with them in his hands. His jaw dropped at the sight of the trashed room. "What happened?"

**l**

Jool slipped back into the isolation room to realign the few leads that Caroline had misplaced before she went to her room to shower and change. Frowning as she worked, she watched Oz intently. He was still unconscious and his breathing was laboured. She nodded approvingly as she caught sight of the manacles he was wearing.

"Have you administered the tranquilisers yet?" She asked Doctor Lam.

"Yes."

"Why haven't you changed back?" Jool asked Oz. Sighing, she looked back at the Chief Medical Officer. "Do you need me to take blood samples?"

Doctor Lam shook her head. "We found the sample you took earlier and sent it off to the lab." She said as the speakers crackled.

"Showers Doc." Jon's disembodied voice wafted through the room and Jool scowled up at the observation room.

"I'll let you know as soon as we get the results back." Doctor Lam promised and Jool nodded gratefully at her as she left the room.

**l**

Mallie was still in a mood. Dinner was military rations. The Stargate was still on the bottom of the ocean. All in all, Faith was having a bad day. Fighting back her frustration and craving for nicotine, the dark-haired slayer gritted her teeth and ate her meal in silence. It tasted like chicken. It was supposed to be beef stew.

The Stargate couldn't be moved by two people. Faith wasn't even sure if it could be moved by three. One of the cables wrapped around it was still buried under rubble and the 'Gate itself was firmly wedged between two immense stone slabs. She still had no clue how to dial it without an MCT.

Mallie was on strike and it wasn't fair to expect Kay to continue to work when they clearly weren't getting anywhere by themselves. They'd run out of fresh food and the bracken they slept in was in urgent need of changing.

So... what could she do about it?

Faith caught herself reaching for her cigarettes and swore, pushing herself to her feet and into action. Snatching up the old-fashioned diving helmet she had found earlier that day, she stalked out of the courtyard, ignoring the two pairs of curious eyes that followed her.

Striding through the dark passageways of the castle, Faith quickly reached the 'Gate room. Picking up the long rope they used to pull each other up the cliff, Faith untied the branch that they sat on and carefully retied the ends to the helmet. Holding the other end of the rope tightly in one hand, she flung the helmet off the cliff.

She felt the sudden slack as it hit the ocean below and waited until the weight of the helmet began to tug on the rope again before she began to pull it up. The sun had set long ago and she worked by touch and sound, trying her hardest not to bang the helmet against the cliff-face too often.

When she had pulled it up, she carefully felt the inside of the helmet. It was about half-full with seawater. Smiling in the dark, Faith retraced her footsteps.

**l**

Jool opted to use the small bathroom attached to her room to shower and change rather than the communal shower rooms. Standing under the torrent of hot water, she could feel her muscles starting to relax. Pulling her plait over one shoulder, she undid the end, dropping the hair band with a sigh as she worked her hair free.

Her wounds stung as the water ran over them and she embraced the pain, revelling in the glory of being alive. Not that surviving a fight with a sick werewolf was anything to write home about. Jool frowned at the thought of Oz as she uncapped her shampoo.

Guilt gnawed at her soul as she rubbed the shampoo into her long hair, stepping out of the spray. If only she had noticed the early warning signs yesterday. Or had told Jon about the fleas as soon as Oz had told her. Looking back, she could think of a thousand things she should have done and hadn't. Would Oz be lying unconscious and transformed if they had begun treating him earlier?

Stepping back under the water, Jool tipped her head back to allow the foam to rinse from her hair. Her cheek and jaw smarted and the knot on her temple throbbed as the water beat down on her face. She ignored the pain, what if's whirling through her mind.

**l**

Meanwhile, in the observation room joined to Oz's isolation room, General Landry was taking his leave of the room now that his daughter was safely out of the isolation room. It didn't matter how much tranquilisers they pumped into the werewolf, he couldn't feel easy unless she was out of the creature's reach. Informing that he expected an update on the situation before the day was out, he left.

"What now?" Andrew asked, looking expectantly at the two other people in the room.

"Now we wait for the bloodworks to come through." Doctor Lam sighed, staring down at Oz.

Andrew nodded wisely. "It's always about the blood."

Jolted out of his train of thought, Jon stared at him. Was he crazy?

"What?" Andrew asked, creeped out by the way that Jon was staring at him.

"Fleas." Jon said, seizing on his earlier thought as an excuse.

"Huh?"

As Jon explained Caroline turned around, more interested in what he was saying than the current condition of her patient.

"Where are the fleas now?" She asked when he was done.

"Why?"

"Doc said she gave 'em to one of the zoologists," Jon said at the same time. "Oswald I think."

Nodding, Caroline picked up the phone, asking to be connected to the scientist. Quickly, she verified that he still had the fleas and asked him to come down to the isolation room.

"Why?" Andrew repeated plaintively as she hung up.

"The sooner we know what we're dealing with here, the better." Caroline told him before turning back to the window and her patient.

Giving Andrew a stern look as he opened his mouth again, no doubt to ask more obvious questions, Jon followed her example. He didn't know this Oswald guy, yet another change to the base he had once known better than his own home. His return had been bittersweet. Everything was different and yet still the same. There were strange faces in the hallways and instead of being the respected second-in-command he was a junior officer nominally in charge of the freaky deaky team. And he'd just used the word nominally.

Those who did know who he was didn't know how to act around him, something that he'd thought he'd gotten used to years ago. Those who weren't in the know couldn't understand why a teenager had been given the position and treated him with a thinly veiled contempt. Some of them had been waiting years for just such an opportunity for promotion and resentment ran high in the close confines of the SGC.

His team had barely begun to function as one when this had happened. As good as Caroline appeared to be he couldn't help but wish that Fraser was there. Where was she? Had she been transferred to Atlantis like Lorne and many of the others he'd known? What about Cassie? Surely she couldn't make the trip through the gate.

He was distracted by the arrival of Doctor Oswald. Bounding up the short staircase and into the room, the man nodded at him before turning his attention to the isolation room.

"Jesus Christ!" The grey-haired scientist swore, taking an involuntary step back. Blinking rapidly, he pushed his glasses further up his nose and moved forward. "Where did you find that?"

"Fairmont Apartments." Jon said wryly. "Never mind." He said as the newcomer frowned in confusion.

"On Earth?" Oswald asked incredulously. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"You wouldn't." Andrew told him pompously. "The Homo sapiens lupus isn't exactly well documented." He shrugged. "Unless you know where to look."

"Homo sapiens lupus...?" Doctor Oswald stared at him as though he was mad, opening and shutting his mouth like a stranded fish as he struggled to make sense of what he was being told. "Are you... is this... but... werewolves don't exist!"

"Yeah, sure, you betcha."

**l**

Freshly scrubbed and with her hair pulled back into a damp ponytail, Jool stepped off the elevator on level twenty one and turned the corner to see Jon, Andrew and Doctor Oswald walking towards her.

"Where are you going?" She asked as they drew closer.

"Gonna tell the General we need to fumigate Oz's apartment block." Jon replied. "Bloodworks are back."

Grateful for the excuse not to be there when they told him, Jool nodded. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Doctor Oswald said glumly as he passed her.

Glancing back at them as they disappeared round the corner, Jool carried on to the isolation room where Oz lay.

**l**

"Jool."

"Hmm?"

"Jool!"

Jool looked up from the screen in front of her, frowning at the young watcher standing in front of her. "What?"

"You gotta see this!" Andrew said, practically dancing on the spot with barely-suppressed excitement.

"I'm a little busy Andrew." Jool told him, glancing back at the computer.

"Go." Caroline said, still engrossed in her own work. "You need a break."

"So do you." Jool pointed out.

"I'll go when you get back." Caroline told her.

"Come on!" Andrew insisted.

"Okay." Jool sighed, getting up to follow him from the room. "But it'd better be good."

**l**

It was better than good. It was unbelievable. One of the unused storerooms had been turned into a makeshift kennel block, complete with dogs. The noise level was incredible, with dogs of all shapes and sizes lending their voices to the din.

"Oh my God." Jool said faintly, staring at the sight.

"I know!" Andrew exulted, bouncing up and down.

"Where did they all come from?" Jool asked, moving into the room among the cages.

"Oz's apartment block."

"Explain." Jool told him.

"When we found out that the block allowed pets, Claude said that we needed to bring them in in case they'd been infected." Andrew explained quickly, intimidated by her glare. "So Jon told the residents that their hotel didn't allow pets and we'd arrange for kennelling. There's a cattery next door."

"Doctor Oswald thinks they might be infected?" Jool asked, a speculative gleam in her eye. She glanced at her watch as he nodded. "Thanks Andrew. I've got to get back."

"No problem." Andrew yawned as he spoke, shutting his eyes.

Opening his eyes, he realised that she had gone, leaving him alone in a room full of barking dogs.

**l**

Jon was waiting in the observation room when Jool returned and one of nurses was keeping an eye on Oz's vital signs.

"At last!" Jon exclaimed as he caught sight of her. "We're late. Where's Andrew?"

"I left him on level twenty four. Late for what?" Jool asked, frowning.

"The briefing with General Landry. Caroline and Doctor Oswald are already there." Jon told her as he ushered her out of the room. "We'll pick up Andrew on the way."

**l**

"Ah, SG-13." General Landry greeted Jon, Andrew and Jool as they filed into the briefing room. "Glad to see you could make it. Please continue Doctor."

"Uh..." Claude Oswald pushed his glasses up his nose and screwed up his face as he struggled to remember what he had been saying.

His palms were slick with sweat and he could feel his heart racing. God he hated speaking in public.

"We should have the results of the blood tests in the morning." He blurted. "We'll, uh, know if any of the dogs have been infected then."

"Not the cats?" Jool asked as she settled into a seat beside Caroline.

"The uh, Ctenocephalides canis is completely different from the Ctenocephalides felis." Claude told her.

A room full of blank faces stared back at him.

"Oh! Uh... The flea the, uh, Oz picked up off-world is a Ctenocephalides canis. Cats have a different kind of flea." He explained.

"I see." General Landry said.

"That's, uh, it." Claude told him, sitting down abruptly. He felt faint and the hand that he stretched out toward his glass trembled violently.

"Thank you, Doctor Oswald," said General Landry. "How is Oz?"

"Heavily tranquilised." Caroline said with a grimace. "As I have _no_ baseline for his transformed state that's about all I can say. Doctor Wilson assures me that his condition is serious but stable at the moment. What I can tell you is that the results of the blood tests we did show that he's suffering from a previously unknown strain of the Prior plague carried by the fleas he picked up on P4X-32Z."

"The Priors did this?" General Landry asked.

"It looks that way." His daughter said.

"The good news is that Oz's apartment block has been fumigated. It'll be safe for the residents to return in two days." Jon said.

"We might want to think about fumigating the base as well." Doctor Oswald said. He paled as they all turned to him. "Just, uh, a suggestion."

"You think that's necessary?" General Landry asked him.

"There aren't many places where it would be possible for Ctenocephalides canis to survive but there are enough." Claude told him. "Potentially, the, uh, base could be infested within two weeks."

"But it's only dangerous for dogs?" Landry checked. An infestation of fleas, while unpleasant, was preferable in the short term to shutting down the entire base to fumigate as long as it wasn't life-threatening.

"And Oz." Jool said at the same time as Caroline spoke.

"So far."

"So far? You think it could affect people?" Jon asked.

Caroline shrugged. "To be honest I don't know what it might do. That it's infected Oz is a bad sign as far as I'm concerned."

"You said it was a strain of the Prior plague." General Landry said. "Does that mean that the vaccine..."

"No." Caroline said. "He and the rest of SG-13 had a full series of inoculations when he arrived and it's not that simple. This is an entirely new strain of the plague. The vaccine won't work on this."

"Well that sucks." Jon commented.

As Teal'c would say, indeed, Hank thought wryly. Glancing at his watch, he quickly brought the briefing to an end, arranging another for first thing in the morning to discuss the night's developments.

**l**

Faith was busy trying to carve a fish-hook when Kay emerged from the castle, screwing up her eyes against the early morning light. Two packs of military food lay heating by the fire and a water-bag was slung of the tripod, heating water for coffee.

"What's that?" Kay asked.

Faith looked down at the stake in her hands and sighed. Xan made it look so easy. Tossing the piece of wood over to the growing pile of stakes, she picked up another piece.

"Useless." She said, more to herself than Kay. An awkward silence settled over the courtyard.

"Where's Mallie?" Kay asked eventually.

Faith shrugged, engrossed in trying to carve the curve of the hook into the wood. "She was already gone when I got up. Took the spare knife and a zat."

"You're not a morning person, are you?" Kay said.

"Nope."

Silence reigned supreme once more. As the water over the fire began to boil, Kay collected two of the cups they had found in one of the cases and busied herself making coffee. She had to admit, the invigorating dark infusion was probably her favourite Tau'ri invention.

"So what's the plan for today?" She asked after she had taken her first bitter sip.

"No plan." Faith said. So far so good. Now to attempt a barb.

"Is that meant to be a fishhook?" Kay asked.

"What if it is?"

"How big are the fish?"

It did look more like Captain Hook's hook, Faith admitted ruefully as she stared at it. It'd probably float too. She laughed bitterly and tossed it into the fire. Fuck it, she thought, reaching for her cigarettes.

"So there's no plan?" Kay asked, hoping to distract her from her firesticks.

"Yeah, it's Sunday." Faith said, fumbling with the packaging.

"Sunday?"

"Yeah, Sunday." Faith mumbled around an unlit cigarette. Where was her lighter? "You know, day of rest and all that shit?" She looked up at Kay's blank face.

"You don't know Sunday." Faith realised with a shock. She took the cigarette out of her mouth. Where to begin?

**l**

Reluctantly, Jool opened her eyes when her alarm clock went off, blearily staring at the digital readout on the clock. Despite sleeping for eight hours, as ordered by Caroline, she felt as though she had only just shut her eyes.

Rolling out of bed with a sigh, she groggily made her way into the small bathroom, clicking on the light. Catching sight of herself in the mirror over the sink, she frowned, moving closer to peer at her reflection.

That wasn't right. She gently prodded her face with one finger and pain blossomed across her cheek.

At least she knew she wasn't imagining things, she thought ruefully as she stared at herself in the mirror. So why hadn't her injuries healed by now?

**l**

Jon whistled to himself as he slouched through the familiar hallways of the SGC. He'd spent the night in his quarters on-base for the first time since arriving and it felt just like old times as he headed to the mess for breakfast. Except his knees didn't hurt.

Turning the corner, he jumped back with a cry. "What happened to you?" He demanded.

Doc shifted awkwardly. There was a large bruise on her temple and another on her jaw. The scrape on her cheek had scabbed over and was an angry-looking red around the edges. Jon was horrified. She looked like she'd gone ten rounds with Rocky and lost. She shrugged.

"I'm going to the infirmary before the meeting to get checked out." She said.

"I'll come with you." Jon volunteered. Shouldn't her super healing have kicked in by now?

**l**

Somewhere on Earth, Ba'al frowned as he studied the latest report from one of his personal agents within the Trust. The rogue organisation of minor Goa'uld and Tau'ri was receiving some strange information about a new team at that thorn in his side, the SGC. Privately Ba'al thought that information was being distorted in the retelling, much like the Tau'ri game, Chinese Whispers. Still if even half of it was true...

Perhaps it merited a closer look. He would suggest it to the Original the next time he made contact. Infiltrating the compound would gain them valuable information about Earth's defences and perhaps give them a way to defeat the Tau'ri once and for all. Frankly, he was surprised that the Original hadn't thought of it before. Or perhaps he had? It was so difficult to second-guess yourself.

**l**

"So what's the verdict?" Jon asked as Caroline finished her examination.

"Physically she's fine." Caroline sighed. "She's healing well... for a normal human."

"But she isn't normal." Jon said.

"Uh, _she_ has a name you know."

Caroline sighed again. "I know. I'm waiting for some test results to come back. Hopefully they'll tell us why her healing ability isn't working."

"Right here!"

"How long until the results come back?" Jon asked.

"An hour, maybe two."

"So we've got time for breakfast?"

Caroline glanced at her watch. "Not if you want to get to the briefing on time you don't."

"Besides, I _am_ normal." Jool tried a pout but only succeeded in looking even more battered.

"You can bench-press cars." Jon reminded her.

"So?"

"How is that normal?"

**l**

After the briefing, where they had all repeated the same stuff they'd gone over yesterday and added that nothing had changed in the night, Andrew slipped up to level twenty four. He felt about as useless as he had back in Sunnydale whenever he looked at Oz. He wasn't a doctor like Jool or a Captain like Jon, who always seemed to know what to do. He was just a watcher. He didn't know why Giles had picked him to come.

There was nothing to he could do to help Oz and so Andrew did the only thing he could think of to help. It was feeding time at the SGC kennels.

**l**

Jon sat down on a chair opposite the Doc and grinned at her as he took a slug from his coffee cup. She smiled back as she cut up a sausage on her plate with quick, efficient moves. For the first time since London, the atmosphere between them was relaxed. Jon picked up his spoon, dipped it into his bowl of oatmeal and the PA system crackled into life.

"Doctor Wilson to the infirmary. Doctor Wilson report to the infirmary immediately."

"Oh, come off it!"

"Oh for cryin' out loud!"

They spoke at the same time, putting their cutlery down simultaneously. Self-consciously, their gazes met and then flicked away. Suddenly the tension was back.

"We'd better go." Jon said, pushing his chair away from the table.

Jool nodded, straightening her military jacket as she stood. She felt like she was going to face a firing squad and glanced up at Jon as they left the mess.

"It'll be okay." He said.

Unaccountably, she felt better. The lift to her mood lasted all the way to the infirmary and until she saw Caroline's grave face. Then her spirits took a nosedive again.

"What is it?" She asked breathlessly, Jon by her side. "Tell me!" She demanded when Caroline hesitated.

"You have the canine plague." Caroline told her bluntly.

"What? No." Jon exclaimed. "It only affects dogs."

"And Oz." Jool whispered.

"She can't have it." Jon continued regardless. "You've made a mistake. Check again."

"I have." Caroline sighed. "Twice."

"Check again!" Jon shouted.

"Captain O'Neil!" Caroline snapped. "I will not be spoken to like that in my infirmary. If you can't behave like a rational human being then I suggest that you leave before I have you removed."

Jon stared at her in awe. Little Caroline was all grown up and glaring at him like she'd toss him out personally if he made one wrong move. Somehow he managed to apologise and the dangerous gleam in her eye faded away.

"Now," Caroline turned back to the Doc, her voice soft. "Can you think of any way you could have been exposed to the virus? It's very important."

"The fleabite." The Doc said distantly.

"What?" Caroline asked.

"One of Oz's fleas bit me." The Doc explained. She glanced at him. "I told you, remember."

Jon nodded. She'd mentioned something about it yesterday, but he'd been too focussed on getting to Oz to pay it much attention.

"When?" Caroline asked.

"Two days ago." Jool told her. A sudden thought struck her. "Wait! It can't have been that. Oz was presenting symptoms after twenty four hours. I still don't have any."

"I think you are." Caroline said. "Your white blood cell count is dangerously high and the virus multiplying exponentially. I believe that all of your healing abilities are concentrating on fighting off the plague and there's nothing left over to heal your injuries. That's why they haven't healed yet. Jool..."

"You want to put me in isolation." Jool said slowly. "It's okay. I get it. If it mutates, becomes airborne..."

"It would be a disaster." Caroline finished.

"Just call me Typhoid Mary." Jool said with a weak smile.

**l**

This was the life. The sun beating down, the sea whispering beside her, her fishing line jerking as she got a bite... Fuck!

Faith leapt for the rudimentary pole before it was tugged overboard, almost upsetting the raft in the process. Shee-it, he was a big 'un! She grinned as she pulled the line in and lifted a large fish out of the water to flop gasping on the raft.

Grabbing her knife from its sheath, she hit the fish hard on the head with the hilt. It lay still and she was able to pull the wire hook she had managed to scavenge from the junk pile out of its mouth, getting a good look at razor sharp teeth as she did so. Soon, she had the hook baited again and in the water, leaving her free to lie back and soak up the sun's rays.

But her relaxed mood was shattered and Faith found her mind filled with doubts and unanswerable questions once again. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was running out of time. Ever since she had woken up in that motel room in Des Moines she'd felt like she was racing against some invisible countdown. And she was late.

So she figured she was on a timeframe here. The Powers That Fuck With You wanted her to do something or be somewhere by sometime. Judging by the sense of urgency she was feeling, it was soon.

She'd thought they wanted her to find the slayers from her dream. What she was supposed to do with 'em once she got 'em was anybody's guess. She certainly couldn't take 'em back to Earth and the Council. Not until she got the 'Gate address and a way through the iris. Besides, Mallie and Kay were dreaming about Priors. Were they all dreaming about them? What did that mean?

The Priors were still human, right? So why were slayers dreaming about them? Did the Powers That Toss Salad want them to slay the Priors? Faith wasn't sure that she was five by five with that. She'd been down that route before and she was damned if she was gonna let Mallie or Kay go there. Yeah, the Priors were supernaturally enhanced bad guys bent on the total domination of the universe but they still had souls. Didn't they?

She sighed impatiently. None of it mattered a damn if she couldn't figure out a way off this planet. Unless slayers started popping through the 'Gate she wasn't going to be finding any anytime soon. So why was she here? What was she supposed to do on a deserted planet? How had they even ended up here? Kay said she had dialled another Jaffa planet so why had the Stargate booted them out here?

There had to be a reason, she just had to figure it out. Once she knew that, maybe she'd know how to get off this fucking rock!

**l**

Jool was setting up the last of the computers she had requisitioned to observe Oz from her isolation room when the sixth sense she'd developed since she'd become a slayer warned her that she was being watched. It was a feeling she was going to have to get used to until they figured out a cure so she ignored it, concentrating on plugging the cables into the right sockets.

"Hey." Jon's voice echoed around the room and Jool jumped, spinning around.

She hadn't expected it to be him. Andrew had stopped by earlier, full of gossipy news about what was going on outside the confines of her isolation room and she knew that he had his hands full with the fumigation of the base.

"Hi." She said, staring up at him as he stood in the observation room, his hands jammed in his pockets. He looked tense.

"Settling in okay?" He asked.

Jool glanced around the isolation room. It wasn't too bad. She had a little workstation set up and she'd managed to get permission to take some of her belongings into the room with her so... oh, who was she kidding? It looked grim.

"Not bad." She said. "How goes the fumigation?"

Jon groaned, pulling up a chair. "It goes." He said wryly as he sat down. "Don't suppose you've got a Playstation down there?"

"No..." Jool said, confused.

"Damn." Jon said. "Chessboard?"

"Strangely, yes."

"Really?"

"No."

**l**

Hauling the last armload of bracken into the courtyard, Kay dropped it onto the roaring fire. Stepping back with a contented sigh, she wiped her brow, noticing as she did so that her hair was in need of a cut. There had been a pair of scissors in the boxes they had brought up from the ocean and she wondered if she could ask either Faith or Mallie to do it for her tonight. On second thought, perhaps it wouldn't be a good idea to ask Malina.

Kay sighed as she stepped through the arch of the castle gateway. Who knew what was wrong with the girl! She certainly didn't and she suspected that Faith didn't either. And where was Mallie going anyway? It certainly wasn't hunting because she never brought anything back. So what was she doing? Wrapped in her own thoughts, Kay walked towards the forest, never noticing the blonde figure that slipped through the gate into the castle behind her.

Malina glanced over her shoulder at the receding woman, resentment stirring in her breast. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be helping Faith. Had they given up?

Panicked, Malina hurried through the castle to the cliffs edge, her eyes searching out the small raft bobbing on the waves and the dark-haired woman lounging on it. Faith raised an arm in a lazy wave and Malina clenched her fists in rage. They _had_ given up!

Turning sharply on her heel without bothering to acknowledge Faith, Malina stalked through the castle hallways, her hands tensed into claws. How could they? Without even telling her!

In her self-righteous anger, Malina completely forgot that she had left the castle before daybreak and that she had given up on raising the Stargate days ago. Reaching the courtyard of the castle, she spotted Faith's clothes lying in a heap.

The sight triggered a memory and suddenly she knew how to tell if Faith had given up. Snatching up the clothes, she rifled through Faith's pocket until she found what she was looking for. Dropping the clothes, Malina opened the brightly-coloured cardboard box with hands that suddenly shook as she counted.

They were all still there. Faith hadn't given up hope. Malina sighed as she relaxed and then jumped as a voice came from behind her.

"I will slap you into next Tuesday if you even think of smoking one of those." Kay said from the gateway, her arms full of bracken.

"Kay." Malina said, turning to face her. She glanced down at the packet of cigarettes in her hand. "I-"

"In fact," Kay continued, dumping the bracken and moving into the courtyard. "I'm tempted to do it anyway."

"Come on then!" Malina squared up to her as the older woman kept coming.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Kay asked as she reached her.

"You!" Malina screamed, striking out with a punch that Kay easily blocked. Enraged, the teenager tried again and again.

Calmly, Kay blocked her blows, falling back against the force of her attack as she allowed the distraught slayer to expend her energy.

"I hate it here!" Malina shrieked, tears dripping down her face. "I hate it!"

Sobbing brokenly, she collapsed in a heap on the floor. Kay knelt beside her, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

Malina reared up suddenly, flinging her arms around Kay's neck and sobbing into her shoulder. Surprised, Kay hesitated for a moment before returning the embrace. Murmuring soothing words, she gently rocked the young girl as she comforted her.

**l**

Jool lay in her uncomfortable bed listening to the sound of the watching nurse's breathing echo from the PA speakers. An unpleasant chemical smell permeated the air and she could taste it in her mouth. The fumigation of the base had begun.

Thoughts of the fumigation led naturally to Jon and Jool's hand crept to her stomach as she remembered their impromptu game of chess. The board had been made of tubing laid out on her bed, the pieces were oddments scavenged from around the room and Jon had beaten her into the ground, but it had been fun.

They hadn't talked about what was happening at all. Instead she'd learned that he liked the Simpsons. A lot. He hated Family Guy, which only went to show what bad taste he had. Talking of bad taste, wasn't Mary Steenburgen a little old for him?

Her face twisted wryly in the dark. Not if he wasn't really eighteen. That would also explain his taste in music. What teenager liked opera? She was twenty four and she _still_ didn't!

Which led her into wondering what Jon was if he wasn't an eighteen year old boy. He wasn't anything supernatural, she knew that for sure. He didn't set off her slayer senses and he wouldn't have got past Willow's wards if he was a demon. But if he was human then why was every instinct in her body screaming that he was older than he looked?

Jool sighed in frustration, punching her pillow as she turned restlessly. She wasn't going to find the answers tonight so it was time to go to sleep and stop trying. Resolutely, she shut her eyes.

Only to open them again minutes later as she realised that Jon never got lost. He always knew where everything in the base was and the quickest way to get there. How? Had he been here before?

**l**

"Morning people." Hank said as he strode into the debriefing room. He hated being late but an accident on the road had left him stuck in traffic and the delay had been inevitable. At least he wasn't the only one. It looked like Claude Oswald had been delayed too.

"Shall we get started?" He said as he settled into his chair. "How's Oz?"

"Not good." Caroline grimaced wryly. "His condition has deteriorated to the point where we no longer have to keep him sedated. I'm afraid that he slipped into a coma during the night."

She flipped open the dossier in front of her. "On another note, several personnel have come forward reporting recent flea bites. They're all testing positive for the plague so I've confined them to the sick bay for now. Doctor Oswald is the only one showing symptoms so far."

"Claude Oswald?" Hank asked his daughter, surprised.

"Yes." Caroline confirmed. "He started sneezing and running a fever late last night. We're keeping a close eye on him."

Jon watched Hank as he leaned back in his seat, clearly troubled. Caroline sighed opposite, fidgeting with the papers in front of her.

"I'm recommending that we lockdown the mountain." She said and Jon sat upright in his chair. What? "It's imperative that we stop the spread of this disease before we end up with another epidemic on our hands."

"Pshaw!" Jon pooh-poohed the idea. "Locking down the mountain won't help."

"Uh," Andrew stuck his hand in the air. "What's a lockdown?"

"Exactly what it sounds like." Jon told him. "Look," he said, turning to Landry. "This plague is spread by fleas, right?"

"Yes." Hank said, wondering where the youthful Captain was going with this.

"So we get rid of the fleas, we get rid of the plague." Jon reasoned. "We can't do that locked in here. Oz already spread them out there."

Hank nodded thoughtfully. A lockdown was standard operating procedure but Jon had touched on the issues that had already caused him to postpone the order. He was going to have to make a decision soon though.

"Have any of the civilians from Oz's apartment block been infected?" He asked.

"One." Caroline told him, checking her notes. "A... Mrs Miller, fifty-six, owns a Rottweiler called Miffy who's also infected."

"Miffy?" Jon asked incredulously.

"Miffy's infected?" Andrew exclaimed in dismay. The well-trained Rottweiler was one of his favourite charges. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"That's the point of these meetings." General Landry told him pointedly and Andrew flushed, subsiding back into his seat.

"How's the fumigation going, Captain?" Hank asked suddenly, turning to Jon.

"Phase one is complete." Jon told him, fiddling with the pen in front of him. "All non-essential areas have been successfully fumigated and will be ready for reoccupation at eleven hundred hours tomorrow. We should be ready to fumigate essential areas at fifteen hundred.

"All off-world teams have been notified to report to the Alpha site instead of the SGC except for SG-6, who are in deep cover on P3X-739 and can't be reached. They're not scheduled back until next week anyway. We're operating with a skeleton staff of volunteers until Caroline and the Doc figure this out."

Hank nodded, coming to a decision. "We'll hold off on the lockdown," He said. "For now."

**l**

Faith held the fishing rod loosely in her hands as she sat on the bobbing raft, her legs dangling in the cool blue water and her eyes fixed unseeingly on the cliff ahead. The line jerked and she pulled it in automatically, adding the silvery fish to the growing pile behind her. Already she'd caught twice the amount she had yesterday and she wondered idly if it had anything to do with the guts she'd seen Mallie tipping over the cliff earlier.

What _had_ Kay said to her? Whatever it was it had worked. Mallie had been almost nice yesterday evening and had surprised Faith this morning by first cooking breakfast and then volunteering to go hunting. Faith could almost see the gentle girl she had first met when she looked at her.

Faith shivered as a cloud drifted over the sun and the unpleasant sensation catapulted her back into her recent nightmare. She shuddered again as it played again in front of her eyes.

Why the fuck was she dreaming about her old high school back in Boston? Were The Powers That Sit On Their Asses trying to tell her something? Whatever it was it must be bad. She couldn't remember ever sensing that ominous feeling of menace before she had ditched school for good when she had become a slayer. Boredom and loneliness, sure, imminent danger, not so much.

She sighed. Was it the PtB or was it simply as B would say, that her unresolved issues were finally coming to light? Either way, the nightmares were starting to seriously bug her.

**l**

The sound of Andrew's excited babbling greeted Jon as he pulled open the observation room door and bounded up the steps. Ignoring the young watcher for now, Jon turned his attention to the room below.

An extra monitor had been set up to monitor Claude Oswald as he lay in the infirmary as well as Oz in his isolation room and the Doc sat with her back to him as she typed furiously on the computer in front of her. Her long hair spilled over the back of her computer chair and... Jon frowned.

"What's with the gloves?" He asked and she jumped, spinning her chair around to face them.

"They're very Rogue." Andrew told her.

"I forgot how much scabs itch." She explained, lifting her hand helplessly.

She looked much better as Jon looked down at her through the plate glass. The bruises that he could see had faded to shades of yellow and brown and the gaze on her cheek seemed less red and angry.

"Did you want anything in particular?" The Doc asked and Jon realised that he was staring.

"Yeah, sure, you betcha." Jon said with a grin as he remembered why he'd come. "I found where Carter stashed the Playstation."

"Carter?"

"Ooh, ooh, I know this one!" Andrew exclaimed, wriggling in his seat with excitement. "She's like Major Monroe on WH-A."

"_Colonel_ Carter is on _SG-1_." Jon patiently corrected him. "Wanna play?" He asked the Doc.

"Um..." She glanced back over her shoulder at the computer screen behind her. "I'm kinda in the middle of something." She said. "Maybe later."

"Sure." Jon said, glancing at Andrew as he moved to the door. How come he got to stay?

"Could you do me a favour though?" The Doc asked him and he paused.

"What?"

"Take Andrew with you?"

"Done."

"Me?" Andrew asked as Jon grabbed him by the collar, dragging him towards the door. "What did I do?"

Jool sighed as she turned back to her computer. Peace at last! She caught sight of one of the monitors showing Oz and sighed. He was responding to the course of sagramostim they were trying but it wasn't enough to save him. She needed to find a cure. She glanced at the monitor observing Doctor Oswald just as he began to vomit. Soon.

**l**

"How many moons are there on Earth?"

It was the first question Mallie had asked about Faith's home planet in days and Faith recognised it for the peace offering it was.

"One." She replied, stretching her feet out towards the fire.

"Just one?" Mallie asked again. "How do you see at night?"

Faith sighed as she made herself comfortable, giving serious thought to the question as heat caressed the soles of her boots. "Well, there's streetlights."

"Streetlights?" Kay asked.

"Yeah." Faith told her. "They're metal poles with lights on top. They come on at night."

"Who turns them on?" Mallie wanted to know.

"No-one." Faith said. "They turn themselves on."

"How?"

"Fuck knows."

**l**

The morning that the Odyssey dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the Pegasus galaxy, Cam stopped by Sam's lab to see if she wanted breakfast. Distracted by whatever it was she was doing on her computer, she brushed him off. Bored beyond telling, Cam wandered off in the general direction of the Mess as the pitch of the Odyssey's engines increased and the ship jumped back into hyperspace, on course to Atlantis.

**l**

They came for her at midday. Jool was waiting for them, already clothed in the hazmat gear she had been told to make the trip in. To her surprise, her escorting marines were also suited up.

"Ready?" One of them asked her, his voice distorted by the microphone embedded in his suit.

"As I'll ever be." Jool sighed, hopping off her bed and joining them in the doorway.

They walked in silence through the strangely deserted hallways. Andrew had told her that as many of the personnel as possible had been sent home until the SGC had been successfully fumigated but she hadn't realised just what that would mean locked away in an isolation room.

Jool glanced behind her and suddenly understood her escort's hazmat suits. A seeping fog crept along the floor towards them and Jool quickened her pace, not wanting to be left behind. She must have been the last person to be moved, she realised.

All too soon, they had reached their destination and Jool was locked back in. Reaching up, she pulled off her helmet with a sigh, looking around her new room. It was a lot smaller than her old one but someone had already set her workstation up for her.

Stripping off the hazmat suit, Jool walked forward towards the computer, turning it on and sitting down to login with only a cursory glance at the other monitors to see how her patients were doing. She had a feeling she might be on to something.

**l**

"Hey!" Vala chirped as she bounded into Sam's lab.

"Hey." Sam returned the greeting without looking up from her computer screen.

"So..." Vala said when the silence became uncomfortable. "Lunch?" She smiled brightly.

"Gimme a sec." Sam said, typing on her keyboard.

Vala frowned. "What's a sec? Sam? Sam?"

Maybe she wanted something. Daniel would know. Right! With one last worried look at Sam as she sat hunched over her computer, Vala left the lab.

"Sec." She repeated thoughtfully. "Sec!"

**l**

"Unauthorised off-world activation!" Walter announced, slamming his hand down on the handpad beside him.

The iris refused to close and Walter was just about to inform the room when he remembered the hazmat suit he was wearing. Tearing the glove off his hand, he was about to try again when an IDC code flashed up in front of him.

"Receiving IDC code." He said instead. "It's SG-6."

"This is Captain O'Neil." Jon said, leaning over Walter to use the microphone. "Do not come through the 'Gate. Repeat, do not come through the 'Gate. Contact the Alpha site."

"There's no time!" A voice yelled back at him. "We're coming in hot!"

"Then I suggest you take a deep breath and close your eyes before you get here!" Jon snapped.

Switching to the intercom into the Gateroom, he ordered the guards there to fetch hazmat suits and then called a medic team to the Gateroom over the base's PA system as the first figure staggered through the Stargate, his eyes screwed shut. He ran blindly down the ramp as two more people emerged behind him, their eyes also closed. They stumbled down the ramp to collide with the first man as a final person appeared in the Gateroom.

"Close the iris." Jon told Walter as the last figure began to walk down the ramp to join his team-mates.

"Don't panic." He told the new arrivals. "We've had to fumigate the place. We're just getting you some hazmat suits now."

They were beginning to turn interesting colours by the time the guards returned with the suits and one of them was forced to take a breath before they were able to help him into his suit. He immediately began to choke and cough as the noxious gas filled his lungs. He was quickly stuffed into a suit where he continued to cough. The medics arrived shortly afterwards and ushered the team from the room and Jon could breathe a sigh of relief.

**l**

"Coming to dinner?" Daniel asked, sticking his head around Sam's door.

"You go." She said, staring at the computer in front of her. "I'll be there in five minutes."

"You're sure?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah," Sam glanced up at him with a small smile. "Go."

Daniel nodded and left her to it. Alone, Sam turned back to her computer, quickly becoming so wrapped up in her work that she completely forgot her promise.

**l**

Faith nestled into the bed of bracken and pulled the deer hide over her. It was starting to get cold at night and Faith wondered if winter was coming and if they'd still be here then. Slowly, the hide began to creep away from her and Faith yanked it back from Kay. What wouldn't she give for a bed of her own?

The familiar orb drifted into view and Faith smiled sleepily up at it. After so many nights, it was almost like seeing an old friend. She was still no further figuring out what the light display meant and had to admit that she probably never would. Still, it was a comforting sight as the orbs orbited lazily overhead.

Sleep overtook her then and it wasn't until the hushed murmur of many voices surrounded her that she opened her eyes again.

"Not again!" Faith groaned, dropping her head onto the desk in front of her with a loud thunk. "Ow."

She sat back up, rubbing her forehead with a frown. Dreams weren't supposed to hurt.

"Good morning class." A smooth feminine voice came from the front of the class and Faith looked up to see the teacher writing something on the blackboard, her back to the class. "Welcome to Survival 101. We teach only one thing here..."

The teacher turned to face them with a predatory grin and Faith froze in horror.

"Don't die." Adria told them.

The leader of the Ori army picked up a knife, _Faith's_ knife, she realised, tossing it lightly in her hands as she gazed at the class. "Don't worry if you fail." She said. "I'll just move on to the next class."

Faith followed the gesturing weapon to one of the windows and sudden rage filled her at the sight of the Scoobies and SG-1 milling around outside. No fucking way.

Sudden screams snapped her attention back to the classroom as an almost oriental-looking girl Faith recognised from her slayer dream slumped to the floor, her dark eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling and Faith's knife buried to the hilt in her chest.

**l**

"Sam!"

The impatience in Daniel's tone finally registered and Sam looked up from her computer screen to see Cam, Vala and Daniel all stood in front of her. She frowned, pushing her chair away from her desk. How long had they been there?

"Hey guys." She said. "What's up?"

"We're worried about you." Daniel told her.

"Have you eaten anything today?" Cam asked, his arms folded across his chest.

"What's wrong?" Vala added.

Sam sighed. "It's these yield calculations." She admitted, gesturing to her computer. "No matter how many time I run the simulation I still can't get the wormhole to make the jump. I hate to say it..."

"Oh, don't say it." Daniel told her.

"But I think we need Rodney."

Daniel closed his eyes. "You said it."

"Who's Rodney?" Mitchell asked.

How to describe Rodney? Daniel opened his eyes. "Have you ever seen Pinky and the Brain?"

Mitchell nodded. "Sure."

"Think Brain but with a bigger ego."

"Oh Daniel, he's not that bad." Sam protested as Vala frowned, confused. Daniel just looked at her in silent reply. "Okay, maybe he is that bad." She admitted.

"So who is he?" Vala asked.

"As much as I hate to say it, Rodney McKay is a brilliant scientist." Sam said. "If anyone can make this work, he can."

"Great." Vala said. "How do we get him to Atlantis?"

"Well, he's already there." Sam told her. "He's the head of the science and research department."

Cam smiled. "I love it when a plan comes together." He said. "So we swing by Atlantis, pick up McKay, drop Jackson off so he can poke around..."

"Ooh, me too!" Vala said, sticking her hand up excitedly.

"Jackson _and_ Vala." Cam repeated. "Then we go find us a wormhole and place an intergalactic call."

"Why does she get to come?" Daniel asked.

"Because you'll be there to keep an eye on her." Cam told him.

Vala poked her tongue out at Daniel.

**l**

Cam sighed, rubbing his neck as he kicked off his shoes. He was exhausted as he went through the motions of undressing. He still wasn't sleeping well, spending most of the night staring up at his ceiling. He'd never had a problem with insomnia before and hadn't realised what a problem it could be.

He looked like hell, he decided, staring into the bathroom mirror as he brushed his teeth. Dark circles hung under his eyes and if he didn't get a decent night's sleep for once he didn't know what he'd do. Probably go to the infirmary, he admitted to himself, turning out the light. It was that bad.

He slipped underneath the covers, settled his head against the pillows, blinked and suddenly he was standing in a dark and dingy school hallway. Overhead, a sickly fluorescent light flickered overhead.

"What the...?" Cam said, spinning around.

Where the hell was he? This wasn't the Odyssey. Running footsteps echoed in the distance and Cam spun around again as they drew closer, preparing himself for the worst.

Faith skidded around a corner, her eyes wild and his heart leapt in his chest.

"Faith!"

Cam grinned as he moved to intercept her. Still running, Faith collided with him and his arms fell naturally round her waist to steady her. She looked at him for the first time then, her eyes wide and filled with terror.

"What is it? What the matter?" Cam asked urgently, clasping her tighter.

"Class." Faith choked out.

"Is that all?" Cam said, relaxing. "It's not so bad."

Grabbing her arm, Cam pulled her to a nearby door, flinging it open and walking into one of his high school science labs. At the front of the class, Mr Edwards barely paused in his lecture to wave them into seats.

"Everything around you is composed of just three particles. Protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons bond together to form the nucleus of an atom and the electrons whizz around it. Like so." Mr Edwards said, flicking a nearby model.

"See." Cam whispered as Faith's jaw dropped.

**l**

Tired, but convinced she had made a break-through, Jool hit the save button and leant back in her chair. Rubbing her face with her hands, she sighed and sat back up to shut down her computer. She had worked through most of the night to complete her work.

A glimpse of motion in the corner of her eye had her glancing up at the monitors surrounding her workstation. A crowd of people surrounded Doctor Oswald's bed, blocking her view of him. Jool frowned, standing up to peer at the monitor. What were they doing there at five in the morning?

The nurse in front of the camera moved then and Jool finally had an unobstructed view. An icy pit opened up in her stomach as she watched Caroline reach for the defibrillator. Helplessly, she watched as Claude Oswald died.

**l**

What a fucked up dream. Faith stretched in her bed of bracken, opening her eyes to stare thoughtfully at the stone ceiling. What was with the sudden switch from being chased by Adria through the corridors of her old high school to sitting in a strange classroom while some old dude she'd never seen before droned on about atoms? Her orb floated into sight overhead and something suddenly clicked in Faith's head.

"Silver!"

**l**

"Come again?"

"Silver." Jool repeated.

"Let me get this straight," Jon said. "You wanna inject Oz with silver?"

"Won't that kill him?" Caroline asked, a worried expression on her face.

Jool shook her head. "Not if we bond a microscopic amount with an injection of the virus."

The frowning General Landry interrupted her. "You want to inject him with the virus as well?"

"Go on." Caroline told her, looking thoughtful.

"If we increase his dosage of sagramostim at the same time, he should fight back against the infection." Jool explained to her. "There were some similar tests run on werewolves back in the fifties."

"What are the chances it'll work?" General Landry asked her bluntly.

"Not good." Jool confessed. "But it's our only shot. If we wait for much longer he'll be too weak to even make the attempt."

Caroline nodded, turning to her father. "If we can cure Oz then we can extrapolate the antibodies from his blood and create a vaccine using Orlin's formula."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Jon asked. "Being a werewolf and all."

"Unlike the vampyre, who sires a childe through the exchange of blood, the werewolf infects others by biting them." Andrew informed him pompously.

"It's in their saliva." Jool added when Jon still looked confused.

"Ah."

General Landry sighed. "Do it." He ordered.

**l**

Cam groaned as the sound of his beeping alarm rolled around his head. Aw, come on! He'd only just gotten to sleep. Shoving his head between his pillows, he clamped his arm over his head but it was no good. He was wide awake now.

Throwing the pillow across the room, he opened eyes that felt gritty from lack of sleep and switched the alarm off. Silence echoed through the room and Cam fell back on his bed with a sigh, staring up at the all too familiar ceiling. After another night spent staring up at it, he was definitely beginning to hate it.

Rolling out of bed, he padded into his bathroom, rubbing his bleary eyes. Tomorrow, he promised his haggard reflection. He'd go to the infirmary tomorrow.

**l**

Locked in an isolation room, Jool had nothing to do but wait for Oz to show some sort of reaction to the treatment. At first she tried pacing, but that just got her more worked up so she sat down in front of her computer and tried to work. But her mind wouldn't focus and her gaze kept drifting to the monitors displaying Oz. Books couldn't hold her attention either and Doctor Oswald's blank monitor tormented her every time she caught sight of it.

Finally, just when she thought she was going to go out of her mind, Jon showed up with the Playstation. Jool quickly set it up and, thanks to a wireless controller, Jon stuck around to go co-op. Together, they made an unstoppable team and Jool almost forgot about Oz. Almost but not quite.

She had just launched her character at a group of Covenant Grunts when she sneezed explosively.

"Gesundheit." Jon said from the observation room.

"Thanks." Jool opened her eyes again just as her character died. "Crap."

Suddenly she sneezed again. Grabbing a tissue, she blew her nose. Binning the tissue, she sniffed experimentally. Much better.

Picking up her controller she focussed on killing the Covenant scum in front of her. They'd almost completed the level when she sneezed again. Fortunately, that time she didn't die and they made it to the end of the level.

While they were waiting for the next level to load, Jool was seized by a sneezing fit. Dropping the controller, she pinched the bridge of her nose to stop them, turning around to look up at the observation room. Jon stood behind the thick plate glass staring worriedly down at her.

"Ged Carolime." She told him thickly.

Still clutching his controller, Jon ran.

**l**

"Praemas."

The Orici's welcome was not a warm one. Praemas had not expected it to be. He had returned to the flagship to report to the Orici personally. Unfortunately he had nothing good to tell her, as she was undoubtedly already aware.

"What news do you bring me?" She was saying now and he forced himself to look her in the eye.

"There is no news." He told her. "They never arrived on Juna."

The Orici's eyes burst into flame. "How is that possible?"

If it had been possible for Praemas to turn a paler colour, he would have. The doors to her private chambers slid opened and the flames disappeared as though they had never been there. Praemas swallowed carefully in relief as a Prior he had not met before glided into the room, his demeanour one of arrogant supplication.

Irritated by the interruption, Adria turned her cold gaze on the intruding Prior.

"What?"

Cowed by his reception, he hesitated before answering, a circumstance which only inflamed Adria's temper.

"We have detected some spatial anomalies near the Supergate."

"Do you think I am not already aware?" Adria asked him coldly, flames licking at the edges of her irises. "I am Orici. I know all."

The Prior prostrated himself before her, begging forgiveness and the flames in Adria's eyes died down. She turned away, twitching the edge of her elaborate gown out of his grasping reach.

"Take one of the fleet and investigate." She ordered him, ignoring him as he bowed his way out of the room.

Turning back to Praemas as the doors hissed shut, Adria regarded him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding.

"I have another mission for you." She told him, arranging herself artistically in a chair. "I'm sure that you won't fail me again."

**l**

Squinting up at the sun as it hung high in the sky, Faith's stomach decided that it was time for lunch. She'd caught more than enough fish for one day. Mallie had been hunting again and she always got more bites when the young blonde disposed of the insides over the edge of the cliff.

Picking up the string of fat fish, Faith dove off the raft into the blue ocean. She didn't rush to the cliff-face, enjoying the sensation of cool water against her overheated skin too much to hurry. It wasn't like she had any plans for the rest of the day anyway.

"Behind you!"

The distant scream came from above but Faith didn't waste time looking up. Spinning around, she stared in horror at the menacing dorsal fin slicing through the water towards her. Oh, _fuck_.

**l**

**A/N**

I'm so not a doctor. Can you tell?


	11. The Poseidon Project

**A/N**

Exam season started last week so updates might be delayed. Thanks for reading.

**The Poseidon Project**

Faith grabbed her knife from its sheath. Terrified, she watched the sharply curved dorsal fin race towards her. Metres from her, the blunt head of a shark broke the water, its wicked sharp mouth open as it charged her. Faith's breath stuck in her throat as stubbornly as the Jaws theme in her head. Just one chance...

At the last possible moment, she twisted her body to one side in the water, jabbing out with her knife. Something hit her knees with a crashing force, slewing her body sideways and ducking her under the water. Frantically, Faith clawed towards the surface, panicking.

She sucked in a lungful of air as she surfaced, opening her eyes in spite of the salt water streaming from her head to look desperately around. Had she got it?

The sea was calm and there was no sign of the shark. Her knees throbbed painfully. A loud clatter came from the cliff behind her and Faith span around to see the rope chair bobbing in the water. Where the fuck was the shark? With a final fearful look around, Faith struck out towards the cliff, still clutching her knife in one hand.

The dorsal fin surfaced between her and safety and Faith recoiled back, her heart racing. The shark rose to lie bobbing on the surface. Slowly, it rolled over to expose the gaping slash in its belly. As blood spread through the water towards her, Faith began to laugh hysterically.

l

"You look terrible," Vala said as Cam sat down next to her.

"Thanks," he said dryly, reaching for his coffee cup.

This insomnia was making him almost as bad as Jackson about the stuff, he thought as he felt the caffeine begin to spread around his body. Speaking of Jackson...

Cam tilted his head to one side as he surveyed the sleeping archaeologist opposite him. Jackson's head lay pillowed on his hands as he slumped over the table. Cam envied him as he finished his cup of coffee and started on his breakfast.

"So..." Vala said coyly, "What did you do last night?"

"Stared at the ceiling," Cam told her, tucking into his rubbery eggs.

"Sounds fun," Vala said and Cam shot her a glance. Was she crazy? "Who with?"

"By myself," Cam said stiffly.

"Oh," Vala hesitated, picking at the fruit on her tray. "Is it because of that Faith girl, because-"

"Can we please change the subject?" Cam interrupted icily.

Taken aback, Vala nodded. Savagely, Cam stabbed at piece of pancake. Picking up the orange on her tray, Vala began to peel it with frequent glances at Cam. As the silence lengthened he began to feel more and more guilty for snapping. He was just so damn tired!

Pushing his tray away, he sighed, picking up a discarded straw wrapper and twisting it between his fingers.

"Excited about Atlantis?"

"Oh yes," Vala nodded enthusiastically. "I understand that there are lots of wonderful treasures." Dropping the orange peel onto her tray, she glanced at Cam and noticed his stern look. "To look at," she added hurriedly.

"Not as excited as Jackson," Cam said, with another look at the sleeping man as the whine of the hyperdrive faded away to be replaced with the thrum of the sublight engines.

"Funny, he doesn't look excited."

"Trust me," Cam assured her, "Like a kid who was up all night on Christmas Eve."

"I thought we imposed a moratorium on cultural references I wouldn't understand."

So they had. "So excited... he was up all night," Cam leaned forward, tickling Jackson's ear with the twisted straw wrapper.

"It's only because he was worried sick about the success of the mission," Vala excused as Jackson flinched in his sleep.

"Wake up sunshine." Cam murmured as he continued to torment Jackson, "Time to see what old Santa brought."

Jackson's hand shot up and the sleeping man slapped his own ear. "Ow," he said, still half asleep.

Sitting back in his chair, Cam assumed his most innocent look, "Morning."

Lifting his head, Jackson squinted at him, "What?" he asked blearily.

"We just came out of hyperspace." Cam told him, fighting back the smile that threatened to spread across his face, "I'm guessing you don't want to miss the landing."

"Wha?" Jackson said. "What time is it?"

As he glanced at his watch, Emerson made a ship-wide announcement to prepare for atmospheric entry. Cam smiled blandly at Jackson as, beside him, Vala popped the last of her orange into her mouth.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jackson asked.

He didn't bother sticking around for an explanation, getting to his feet and rushing out of the mess. Cam watched him go, wishing he had that much energy. Vala swallowed her last mouthful of breakfast, spitting an orange pip out into her hand and then dropping it onto her tray.

"Okay, he's a little excited," she allowed.

**l**

Rather than spend a moment longer on the chair rope, Faith hauled herself over the top of the cliff as soon as she could reach it. Still dripping wet, she pushed herself up to stand shivering on the edge. Mallie and Kay stared at her with wide eyes.

"We," said Faith, her voice deadly quiet. "Are getting the fuck off this planet. Today!"

**l**

"How are you feeling?" Caroline asked sympathetically as she shone a light into each of Jool's eyes in turn.

"Like someone," Jool stopped talking to sneeze. "Shoved a pepperpot up my nose." She sneezed again and then blew her nose loudly. "How's Oz?"

"Good," said Caroline in a slightly surprised tone. "I was just going over his latest blood test results. His white cell count has spiked. I am a little concerned by his temperature; it's gone up another degree."

"Perfectly normal," Jool said, still sneezing. "Don't be surprised if he starts panting."

"Panting?"

"Oh, yeah!"

Sticking her tongue out, Jool demonstrated, almost biting her tongue off when another sneeze crept up on her and attacked. Trying not to smile, Caroline packed her belongings up.

"I'll come by and check on you again soon," she promised before she left.

Another fit of sneezing was her only reply and Caroline left the room, taking off her hazmat helmet with a sigh of relief as soon as the door was closed. She really hated the suits but until they were certain that Jool's infection hadn't mutated into an airborne one, they were a necessary precaution.

Captain O'Neil was lounging against the wall opposite her, his youthful face more gravely serious than Caroline had ever seen it.

"So what's the diagnosis?" he asked

"Stage one Canine Prior Plague," Caroline told him briskly, walking away down the corridor. He fell into step beside her, listening intently. "We'll know more once the blood results come through. In the meantime, I'm upping her dose of antibiotics."

"Will that do any good?" the Captain asked.

"Not much," Caroline admitted. She sighed, coming to a halt in the deserted hallway. "Truthfully, unless Oz recovers, I don't hold out much hope for any of those infected."

**l**

"Just... shut up and let me think!" Faith said finally, when Mallie and Kay wouldn't let up with their questions.

How were they going to get off the planet? Did she have a plan? How were they going to raise the Stargate? If she knew, she'd tell them!

Regretting the rash impulse that had led her into making the declaration, Faith reached for her cigarettes, shooting an evil glare at Mallie as she opened her mouth. Tapping a cigarette out of the packet, Faith lit up, inhaling deeply. Leaning her head back against the stone wall behind her, she closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the sun against her face. How the hell was she supposed to pull this one off?

**l**

Back on Earth, in a corner of Oz's office, sat the Mind-Melder. Oz had moved the device there himself, with the intention of taking a look at it when he got the chance. So far, he hadn't had that chance.

Oz's office was on level eighteen, an area which was currently undergoing fumigation. The poisonous fumes hung thickly in the air, obscuring the watchful camera. So there really was no-one to see when the stub of amber crystal at the tip of the strange device began to glow from within as though lit by a dim light.

**l**

Her eyes shut, Faith tried to block out the twittering of the birds and calm her mind like G-man said a slayer should before she went into battle. 'Cause that's what this was. A battle. Her against the Stargate. She took a drag on her cigarette.

The twittering grew louder and then her arm was grabbed and rapidly shaken. Faith opened her eyes to see Kay looming over her, her face concerned and her mouth moving wicked fast as the high-pitched sounds Faith had mistaken for birds spilled from her lips.

"Speak slower," Faith told her, pushing herself to her feet and looking around. "I can't understand you."

Clouds that had earlier hung in the air now moved, their shapes slowly changing.

"What's happening?" Kay asked almost the second Faith had finished speaking, her voice still high-pitched, but understandable now.

"I don't know," admitted Faith. But maybe she could take advantage of it. "Grab the waterbags," she ordered, carefully stubbing out her half-smoked cigarette.

They had them by the time it was out. As she reached for the packet, they started emptying the water out and blowing bags back up, obviously guessing what she meant to do. Something zipped overhead. A bird, Faith recognised once it had vanished. This was wicked freaky!

Her cigarette safely stashed, Faith began to strip down to her underwear. She was quickly mimicked by Mallie and Kay. Grabbing the airbags, they matched their pace to Faith's as she stalked through the castle to the cliff edge. Barely pausing at the edge to get her bearings, Faith launched herself over the cliff. She was in the water before she had time to close her eyes and bobbing on the surface in seconds. Mallie and then Kay popped up next to her, each taking one of her hands, and towing her towards the raft.

"So, what's the plan?" Kay carefully asked Faith as they helped her onto the raft.

"Get the 'Gate," Faith told her, accepting three air bags from Mallie as she stepped up to the edge of the raft.

A cloud flitted over the sun as she tied the bags to her waist and was gone by the time she was ready to dive. Taking a deep breath, Faith swung her arms over her head and dove down.

She was underwater almost the moment she jumped and her powerful strokes carried rapidly her down to the Stargate. She'd already decided to work on freeing the cables first and had just picked it up when Mallie and Kay joined her.

They were gone almost as soon as they had arrived and Faith stopped work, her lungs burning. Untying the first of the full airbags at her waist, she inhaled deeply, tying it back on before she picked up the cable again.

**l**

A sandwich? As Rodney MacKay left the bridge, Cam looked steadily at Sam. This was the genius they couldn't complete the mission without? Noticing his stare, his blonde second-in-command smiled brightly at him, nodding, and turned her attention back to the telemetry they were receiving on Womack's screen.

Thank God nobody on his team acted like that. Sure, Jackson could be annoyingly vague sometimes, and Vala had a tendency to say whatever was most inappropriate at that time, but none of them were as relentlessly rude and self-centred as Doctor Rodney MacKay. No wonder Shepherd wanted to shoot him.

**l**

Ignoring the galaxy swirling above, Vala stared resentfully at the hologram in front of her. How long was this going to take? The excitement of the holographic library had worn off as soon as Daniel refused to let her have a go. They could be out _there_! Exploring the barely-habited Ancient city. There were probably all kinds of goodies lying around that nobody had even noticed yet.

"Okay," Daniel said, his arms crossed over the front of the console beside her. "That's Earth, and that is Taonas."

"Praclarush Taonas was one of the earliest Lantian cities," the hologram informed him. Vala rolled her eyes, making talking gestures at Daniel as he hung his head when she continued, "It was abandoned when the inhabitants learned that their sun was nearing the end of its life."

"Yes, thank you, I know. I've been there," said Daniel, pushing himself back up. "Okay, um, show me the order in which the earliest Ancient cities were founded."

Vala stared at him in horror. How long would that take? "How is that useful?" she asked. "You going to join up all the dots and draw a pretty picture?"

"I'm just getting my bearings," Daniel told her, leaning on the platform. "You're going to have to get used to the fact that this is probably going to take a while."

"The way you approach things, it could take the rest of our lives!" Vala replied, crossing behind him.

"I'm sorry, but we're not going to find the location of this thing by looking under 'W' for 'Weapon'!" Daniel told her exasperatedly.

"'P' for 'Planet' then?" Vala shot back. "I'm just saying, ask the question!"

Daniel sighed, "Doctor Weir already tried it, it'd be a complete waste of time."

"It would take all of eleven seconds!"

Frustrated, Daniel sighed again, gripping the edges of the podium tightly. "Hello," he said to the hologram. "We're looking for the names of two planets, known on Earth in ancient times in the dialect of Old English as Castiana and Sahal."

"Satisfied?" he asked Vala over his shoulder as she wandered towards the back of the room. Sighing once more, he hung his head.

"Taoth Vaclarush, and Valos Cor," the hologram said and Daniel looked in up amazement as two planets lit up in the holographic display of his home universe.

"Now, I am satisfied," Vala said, walking back to stand next to him as two small bars opened up with the Stargate addresses. She sighed contentedly, "See Daniel? It doesn't hurt to ask."

"I guess not." Daniel said slowly, standing upright and pushing his glasses further up his nose as he stared at the hologram.

Vala frowned, noticing something, "What's that?"

Daniel followed her pointing finger to a bright light shining in the map of the galaxy that hung in the air. The hologram turned to look as well. A flicker of something like surprise crossed her face.

"Altar Conclavum," she identified.

"Why is it red?" Daniel asked slowly.

An excellent point, Ganos thought. What was that girl up to now? How had she managed to do that? It was however, an excellent reminder that it was time to end things here before she said too much and Daniel became suspicious. He was more intelligent than she remembered.

"I recognise this 'Gate address," he was saying now, fine lines radiating out from the corners of his eyes as he squinted at the small label attached to Altar Conclavum's red light.

Ganos shut the display down.

"Really?" Vala said, only vaguely interested.

"Yeah," Daniel frowned as he struggled to remember. "But where from?"

"I don't know, Daniel!" Vala sighed, taking him literally. "Look, we got what we came for, right?"

"Right."

"So why aren't we out there telling someone?"

"Not yet."

Why did he want to wait? "Okay, well, she told us the name of the planets. They were right up there glowing in the ceiling," Vala said. "Taoth Vaclarush and Valos Cor. She even gave us the addresses, which means that we could be out there somewhere overlooking Atlantis, toasting with exotic beverages!"

"There's something else going on," Daniel told her, staring directly at the Hologram.

"What?"

"Well, it shouldn't have worked," Daniel said, glancing at her. "I mean, I didn't expect it to when I asked Elizabeth to try. But I thought there'd at least be some remnant. Some vague similarity between the words Castiana and Sahal and their Ancient language counterparts.

"She wouldn't lie."

"I don't know," said Daniel. "And then there's this Altar Conclavum. What relevance does that have to my query?"

"None," Ganos assured him before she had time to consider her actions.

"Then why display it?" Daniel asked her in a steely tone.

The Hologram remained silent, flickering slightly as she stared straight ahead.

"Explain this to me," Daniel asked Vala. "How can this database translate in real time a language spoken eight thousand years after the Ancients abandoned Atlantis?"

Vala thought about it. "That's a tough one," she admitted.

Daniel nodded, thinking carefully before he addressed the Hologram again. "Is there an archival visual record of the Lantian citizens who fled to Earth?"

"There is," she confirmed

"Display them for me," Daniel told her. "One at a time."

Vala closed her eyes with a long-suffering sigh. At this rate they wouldn't even have time to eat before they had to leave, she thought as she hung her head.

**l**

Faith gave the cable in her hand one more tug and the end slid free from the stone it was trapped under. Elation filling her, Faith turned to the other end of the cable as Mallie appeared next to her. As she picked up the metal cable, she could feel Mallie fumbling with the vine belt at her waist, attaching new airbags and taking the old ones away. The blonde was gone almost as soon as she had finished and Faith concentrated on the task at hand.

Meanwhile, Malina was taking a deep breath of air on the surface. The sun beat down on her shoulders and reflected back from the water around her, making her squint to focus on the raft bobbing on the waves and the tall figure stood there.

"How is she?" Kay asked.

"Still slow," said Malina, swimming towards the raft. "One end of the second cable is free now."

"Really?" Kay asked, helping her out of the water.

"Really," Malina confirmed, handing her the second of Faith's empty airbags.

"How did she _do_ that?" Kay wondered between breaths. "Slow down I mean."

"How should I know?" Malina shrugged.

**l**

Shivering, Jool clutched the sheets up around her neck, wishing she had a hot water bottle. Or an electric blanket. On second thought, perhaps an electric blanket wouldn't be the best idea, given the amount of sweat currently pouring off her.

Sneezing again, she groaned as she wiped her nose. She felt awful. For over two years, her slayer abilities had prevented her from catching any illness until she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be sick. Now she just wanted to crawl into a corner and die. Actually, crawling anywhere sounded like an awful lot of effort right now.

"I've got good news and bad news." Jon's voice was bright and cheery. "Whaddya want first?"

Not in the mood for guessing games, Jool groaned.

"I don't care," she rasped through her sore throat.

"Good then," Jon decided for her. Jool heard his footsteps as he moved closer. "You're not infectious," he whispered.

Surprised, Jool opened her eyes to see his warm brown ones staring back at her as he crouched by her bed, his concern written on his face.

"What's the bad?" she asked.

"Dinner today is a choice between mac 'n' cheese or mystery meat," Jon told her, his lips quirking upwards.

"Unauthorised off-world activation!"

The announcement came from the PA system and Jon sighed as he stood. "Think about it," he said as he slipped from the room.

**l**

Travelling between galaxies is no quick or easy task, even for ascended beings, and Ganos was exhausted by the time she reached Altar Conclavium. Intangible, she materialised next to Faith, taking in the situation in an instant.

Shuddering as one of the other slayers, the one known as Kay, swam through her, Ganos watched as the woman added some full bladders of air to the string tied around Faith's waist, her mind more occupied by the recent confrontation than the situation before her.

In her arrogance she had forgotten how intuitive and intelligent Daniel was, believing that she would be able to hide her true nature from him. She should have remembered how good he was at seeing beyond the surface of things. She had not counted on Vala Mal Doran's presence either. Quetesh's impatient former host had goaded Daniel into questioning her more directly than Ganos had bargained for and, foolishly, she had taken advantage of it.

**l**

"SG-6 to the Briefing Room."

The announcement over the PA system came shortly after Walter's announcement of an unauthorised off-world activation. Already half-way into a hazmat suit, Jon didn't stop. If he wanted to find out what was happening, he needed the suit to survive on level twenty-three and four. Behind him, the door to the changing room swung open and SG-6 entered the room, laughing and joking amongst themselves.

Taking the opportunity to slip out of the room virtually unnoticed, Jon headed towards the lift, putting his helmet on once he was inside one and heading down. Exiting on level twenty-four, he walked to the Control Room. Bounding silently up the stairs, he was pleased to see that Walter was alone in the room.

"What's going on, Walter?" Jon asked before the other man noticed he was there.

Jumping, Walter whirled round in his chair to face him. "Sir!"

"Who was that?" Jon asked.

"Atlantis," Walter told him. "They've detected a Wraith ship heading towards the Odyssey and they've asked us to relay a message via Teal'c. General Landry's sending SG-6."

"Wraith?" Jon frowned. That didn't sound friendly.

**l**

Faith's connection to Cameron Mitchell manifesting itself when she had revealed the location of Taoth Vaclarush and Valos Cor had also been unfortunate, Ganos admitted to herself as Faith finally freed the cable. She still didn't know how that had happened. The ruse she had devised to put Faith in the right place at the right time was having some unexpected side effects.

Much longer and the slayer would free the Stargate. And while Ganos might not be able to actively help her, there was something she could do that the others might turn a blind eye to. It was a simple matter of stiffening a breeze hundreds of miles away and Ganos set in motion a chain of events that would culminate in a storm directly over the ruins of the Conciliarum.

True to form, the others didn't interfere and Ganos was able to turn her attention back to Faith. The last traditional slayer was struggling to move one of the massive stone blocks trapping the Stargate. Visibility on the seabed was worsening as the sun slowly set and Ganos altered the chemistry of the water around her slightly to encourage the phosphorent microbes that lived on the planet to cluster in the area.

The others drew nearer and Ganos waited apprehensively for... what? The others rarely intervened directly and they almost certainly wouldn't dare to interfere with anything that aided the plans of The Powers That Be. It had been why they had turned a blind eye to her manipulations to put Faith into the right place at the right time.

Soon after their ascension they had become aware of the primal energies battling on a level of existence higher than their own. An early attempt to make contact with the beings had resulted in fierce reprisals and they had adopted a hands-off policy. As the eons played out it became obvious that the Powers had a plan, even if their purpose or motives were still a mystery. Whatever that plan was, they brooked no interference. Their war had been raging long before the Lanteans had arrived in this galaxy and it was a deadly one.

Ganos suspected that her own manoeuvrings had been overlooked purely because they had aided those plans. Unlike the Others, the Powers had no qualms about interfering in the mortal realm. The prophecy they had laid down centuries ago had enabled her to move Faith into a position where she couldn't help but be dragged into the Ori invasion without fear of being punished by the Others.

She had assumed that the Powers would take care of their own from there but apparently she had been-

Wrenched away, Ganos rematerialised on the platform in Atlantis' holo-room. Schooling her face into a blank mask, she cursed herself for not remembering to remove the geis she had placed on herself. Appearing in Atlantis every time someone stepped up to the console would be inconvenient to say the least.

Elizabeth Weir stood in front of her now, Daniel and Vala Mal Doran to one side of her. What had they said?

"Hello," Ganos greeted them in a neutral tone.

"That's her!" Vala accused.

"You may enter your query verbally or by entering it manually-"

"You know, drop the school teacher act," interrupted Daniel, annoyed.

Ganos had a feeling that this wasn't going to go well.

**l**

The Doc sighed as she replaced her fork on her barely touched plate. "I'm really not hungry," she said.

"Not even for dessert?" Jon asked, whipping the covers off the pudding with a flourish.

Her face fell further, "I don't like jelly."

Jon gaped at her. Who didn't like jello? "But... it's blue."

"Goody, e numbers," she grimaced.

"Has anyone ever told you you're cranky when you're sick?" Jon asked.

To his consternation, she burst into tears. Staring at her as she sobbed, Jon ran a hand through his already messy hair.

"Aw, crap." He muttered.

Great going Jon, he thought as he patted her awkwardly on the back. Make the sick woman cry. Smooth move.

**l**

"What?" Cam shouted.

"Against a gravity well this strong, they've literally got the higher ground," Sam explained. "But if we can get them to follow us closer to the black hole..."

"Then their systems will be affected the same way as ours, including their jamming technology," realised McKay.

"Which mean we should be able to beam the warheads directly aboard their ship," Sam pointed out.

"In that close, we won't have the engine power to manoeuvre," warned Emerson.

"So we sling-shot and use the gravity well to accelerate back out," shouted Cam as they were hit again and something behind him exploded.

Emerson turned to Womack, "Take us in, full power!" he ordered.

**l**

In the corner of Oz's office, the central crystal of the Mind-Melder grew steadily brighter.

**l**

"She _is_ getting slower, is she not?" Malina questioned as soon as Kay surfaced.

Although night had fallen on the planet, the sea around them glowed with an eerie light that only brightened as the water roughened. The wind had picked up and the temperature had plummeted. A thin sliver of moon occasionally showed through brief gaps in the cloud cover.

"She might be getting slower, but she's done it!" Kay said jubilantly.

"What?" Malina asked, unable to believe her ears until a thick metal rim surfaced near Kay and then Faith too popped up.

"Get Faith onboard," Kay told Malina. "Put her on the furthest edge. We've got to balance the raft to get the Chappa'ai on it."

Opening her mouth to take a much longed for breath of fresh air, Faith found herself grabbed by Mallie, towed through the water, dragged onto the raft and deposited on the far edge before she had time to take it. Things were definitely happening quicker. It was getting worse. What _was_ Cam up to now?

The Stargate hurtled towards her as she exhaled. Fortunately they'd deliberately built the raft so it would be bigger than the 'Gate. But there was no way they'd get it through the castle.

"Go round," she said.

"What did she say?" Kay asked, fending the raft off from the cliff as Faith finally stopped speaking. It was almost painful to hear her. Why wasn't she going back to normal? She'd done what she set out to do.

"Go around," Mallie told her. "I think."

"Alright..." Kay said, staring thoughtfully up into the darkness surrounding the cliff. "You move the raft that way," she pointed left. "And I'll go get the ropes and meet you there."

"What?" Malina asked as Kay reached out and began to climb the cliff. "Kay, wait! What if you fall?"

But she was gone, swallowed into the darkness. Malina looked at Faith as the Tau'ri slayer continued to slowly get to her feet. It was all up to her then. Picking up her makeshift oar with a long-suffering sigh, the teenaged slayer began to paddle.

**l**

Machines beeped nearby and a disgusting chemical taste hung in the air. He moved and metal clanked. The beeping of the machines sped up and Oz realised that they were monitoring him. What had happened?

Opening his eyes, he was slightly relieved to recognise the grey walls of the SGC. Only slightly, because he was manacled to the bed. He was also in his werewolf form, he realised. What had they done to him? The last thing he could remember was going to bed in his apartment. He had to get out of there.

Transforming back into his human form to slip his hands free of the manacles set off shrill alarms from several of the machines monitoring him and Oz winced as the noise rang around his aching head.

Pulling off the various wires and tubes attached to him took more energy than he thought and his head swam as he pushed himself into a sitting position. Looking down at himself, he was almost tempted to laugh. Somehow, someone had found a hospital gown big enough to fit him when he was a werewolf. Now he had transformed it swamped him.

At least they'd given him a gown, unlike the Initiative, he thought, letting down one side of the bed. The door to the room they were keeping him slid open as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and Doctor Lam rushed in.

"Oz!" she exclaimed, skidding to a halt.

Standing, Oz staggered and would have fallen if she hadn't caught him. Feebly, Oz tried to resist as she bore him back towards the bed.

"Get me a sedative," she shouted over her shoulder and Oz noticed the other medical staff arriving in the room.

"No!" he shouted, resorting to the change in a last-ditch attempt to escape.

The attempt only drained his last reserves of energy and instead of transforming, Oz passed out.

**l**

Buffeted by strong winds and in almost pitch dark, Faith sat on the Stargate as Mallie and Kay pulled it up the cliff. Although in the years to come she would have vivid nightmares, reliving the experience, for now she was too focused on stopping the 'Gate from snagging on any of the rocky outcroppings she could barely make out in the darkness and keeping her footing as she literally ran up the cliff to pay much attention to the eerie green sea falling away from her or the distant rumblings of thunder.

She reached the top quickly and was dragged over the top and away from the edge by Kay as she and Mallie finished pulled the 'Gate up. Pushing herself to her feet as they disappeared, taking the Stargate with them, Faith heard the rumble of thunder at the same time as she caught sight of a flicker of distant lightening.

They were back before she could take a step to follow them, her clothes in their hands. Watching them advance towards her, Faith realised that the world around her had slowed down a bit. Not completely, but some.

**l**

"Today we have achieved a great victory," Teal'c' voice echoed deeply through the bridge as Womack looked up from her screen.

"Hyperdrive is back online, Sir," she informed her Commanding Officer.

"Set a course for Atlantis," Emerson ordered. "Let's not stick around to see if any more Wraith show up."

"Ooh, good idea!" McKay told him.

Cam leaned forward, pressing the com button on Sam's console. "Teal'c, we're gonna head on out. See you back at the SGC."

"Indeed," Teal'c replied. "Safe journey."

"Back atcha," Cam said as the Odyssey jumped into hyperspace.

"So..." McKay said, rubbing his hands together. "I'm gonna go get some dinner. Who's with me?"

**l**

The world snapped back to normal as Mallie and Kay carried her through the castle gate. Shaking them off, Faith stalked into the courtyard on her own, revelling in the sensation of moving at a normal speed. Now that she finally had the time, she stretched, slowly and luxuriously.

"Faith?" Mallie said tentatively. "What happened? What did you do?"

"Me? Nothing," Faith told her, snatching up the diving helmet from the ground. "That was Cam."

"What's Cam?" asked Kay.

"I'll tell you later," Faith said, tossing the helmet from hand to hand. "Right now, I think I know a way off this planet. Tonight."

**l**

Sitting in solitary splendour in his throne room, Ba'al frowned as he considered the latest message from his clone on Earth. While the news that their holdings were progressing nicely was gratifying, the reports he was receiving about the SGC were disturbing to say the least.

The thought of the Tau'ri getting their hands on the Ancient weapon that Anubis had sought was enough to make him feel sick. It was unfortunate that the only clue to its whereabouts lay in the SGC's own computers, behind layers of protection that his clone hadn't yet managed to penetrate. Without those crucial addresses, he'd never get to the weapon first.

Perhaps... many heads could succeed where one had failed. Yes, it was time he paid another visit to Earth. This... SG-13 merited a closer look. Another O'Neill? The idea was disturbing.

**l**

"I couldn't work out why there were cables tied round the Stargate." Faith shouted above the howling wind. "Then I found _this_," she tossed the helmet into the air and caught it again deftly. "At the top of the castle. But it wasn't until I saw the lightening earlier that I finally worked it out. I think whoever was here last used them as a conductor to get enough electricity into the Stargate to get off this suckfest."

Mallie and Kay stared blankly back at her. Kay blinked rapidly as rain lashed down on the trio.

"What?" she shouted, confused.

"If we connect the cable to the helmet and the Stargate and put the helmet at the top of the castle, lightening'll hit it," Faith broke it down for them. "When it does, we can dial another planet."

"Why did you not say so in the first place?" Mallie asked.

Faith could have strangled her. "Look, we gotta hurry. The storm's almost here."

"Give me the helm," Kay told her, stepping forward. "I'll put it in place."

"You need the cables too," Faith told her, tossing her the helmet as she strode from the castle.

The others had left the 'Gate leaning against the outside wall a little way from the castle gateway and Faith had noticed it while they were carrying her to the castle. It didn't take her long to find it and, pulling the cables free, she quickly knotted them together and wound the whole into a tight coil. Handing it to the waiting Kay, she turned her attention to the 'Gate as the older woman disappeared into the stormy night.

"What should I do?" Mallie asked plaintively.

"Pack," Faith told her succinctly. "We might not get a second chance."

Relieved to have something to do, Malina rushed off, leaving Faith alone to move the Stargate. Grabbing hold of the slick metal, Faith wrestled the 'Gate upright. Slowly, she began to roll it towards the castle gateway.

**l**

"She did what she believed was right, Daniel." Vala said, turning to him. "How badly can she be punished for that?"

"I don't know," Daniel said grimly, staring out over Atlantis.

"Maybe she'll just get a slap on the wrist," Vala suggested. "Or be forced to write 'I will not interfere in the affairs of humans again' ten thousand times," she said, trying to bring a smile to his face.

"Yeah," Daniel drawled. "I doubt that."

"She said you had your answer. We found out the two addresses we came here for. Can you at least... smile about that?"

"I suppose," Daniel said, finally looking at her. "But we did find out something else too."

"Altar Conclavum," Vala nodded wisely.

"Besides that."

"Oh," Vala frowned. "What?"

"They're not going to help us," Daniel told her, turning back to the magnificent view before them. "We're in this alone."

Thoroughly depressed now, Vala joined him at the railing, staring glumly ahead. Many of the towers of Atlantis were still in darkness and Vala couldn't help but image what it would have once looked like. Not that it wasn't impressive now, but it must have been truly awe-inspiring all those millennia ago. No wonder the Tau'ri still created new legends about it. The reality was something else entirely. No wonder Daniel had wanted to come here so badly.

Caught up in her inner musings, Vala missed the bright streak in the upper atmosphere that heralded the arrival of the Odyssey. It wasn't until the pitch of the engines could be heard above the sighing of the distant ocean that she looked up to see the Earth-built ship descending on the city.

Nudging Daniel with her hip, she pointed it out to him. Together, they watched as the floodlights on one of the outlying piers activated and the Odyssey swooped down to land on the floating city.

**l**

The 'Gate rumbled across the cobblestones as Faith rolled it through the castle gateway and into the courtyard. Carefully negotiating two raised stone planters in the pitch black, Faith reached the wall of the castle and leaned the gate against it so that the glyphs faced her. Staring at the 'Gate, she reached out and tried to spin the inner ring. It refused to budge, locked in place by some internal mechanism. Faith could have probably forced it but she didn't want to risk breaking the gate and moved off to scout for the metal cable instead.

The fire had been doused by the torrential rain and occasional flickers of lightening provided the only light by which to see. Her senses sharpened by her slayer abilities, Faith soon found the metal cable dangling down the wall. Returning to the 'Gate with it, she was halfway through tying it into place when Mallie rushed into the courtyard from the castle.

"Got everything?" Faith asked, eyeing the girl's laden arms with amusement.

"Yes," Mallie replied proudly.

"Weapon?"

"Um..." she glanced down at the items in her arms. "Oops?"

"Over there," Faith tilted her head in the direction of the corner the weapons were stashed in. "Grab me a gun."

Stepping back from the 'Gate as Mallie dumped their belongings to walk to the corner of the courtyard, Faith tilted her face up to the dark sky just as lightening lashed out with a crashing roll of thunder, striking the very top of the tower. In front of her, the Stargate powered up with a barely perceptible hum.

Reacting quickly, Faith reached out and tugged the inner ring experimentally. It spun freely. As it came to a stop, the topmost chevron reached down and clamped into place, lighting up with a golden glow before it released the inner ring.

"Chevron one, encoded," Faith said to herself, spinning the wheel again.

**l**

McKay insisted on accompanying them to the Control Tower, claiming to only do so to prevent them from getting lost in Atlantis' apparently complex transporter system. Personally, Cam thought that he just wanted to make sure he got as much credit for the success of the mission as possible. The transporters were cool though. One moment the doors were closing on the east pier, one bright flash later and they were opening in the 'Gate Room and he was staring at the surprised faces of Vala and Jackson.

"Um... hi," Jackson said.

"Hey," Cam returned the greeting as he stepped out of the transporter. "Any luck?"

There was a brief squabble between the two astrophysicists as they each tried to be the next to exit the small room. McKay finally ceded the position to Sam after she gave him her best glare.

"You could say that," Jackson said as this was going on. "You?"

"Oh, yeah," Cam drawled with a lazy grin.

"You did it?" Vala asked incredulously.

"Thanks in no small part to my genius," McKay said smugly. "Well, Sam helped," he amended as both Cam and Sam glared at him.

"So did blowing up the Wraith ship," Cam reminded him.

"You blew up a Wraith ship?" Daniel asked with a frown.

"And an Ori ship," Sam grinned at the look on their faces. "How was your afternoon?"

"Oh, you know," Daniel sighed. "Morgan le Fay dropped by to give us the addresses we needed but was pulled away by the others before she could give us any real help."

"Same old, same old then?" Cam said with a twinkle in his eye.

"What?" McKay said at the same time.

"Ooh, tell them about the other 'Gate address," Vala encouraged Daniel.

Sam frowned, "Another one?"

"Yeah," Daniel pushed his glasses further up his nose. "A third planet lit up when she gave us the addresses."

"Red!" Vala added with a significant look.

"Why?" Cam asked.

"She seemed just as surprised as we were," Vala shrugged.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," McKay interrupted. "Where did this happen?"

**l**

"Chevron seven is..."

Faith watched the inner ring of the Stargate spin round. Maybe she had yanked a little too hard, she thought, surreptitiously crossing her fingers. Beside her, Mallie fidgeted like someone who had had itching powder poured in her panties. Of Kay, there was still no sign. Slowly, the inner ring of the Stargate crept to a halt.

"Locked!" Faith shouted triumphantly as the chevron clamped down.

With a rushing vortex of energy, the Stargate blazed into life, casting its eerie flickering light over the courtyard. Mallie hesitated, looking up at Faith.

"Go!" Faith told the younger girl, giving her a rough shove towards the open Stargate.

She carried on going, disappearing into the wormhole. Clutching her weapon, Faith stepped closer to the 'Gate, frantically looking around for Kay.

"Kay?" she roared. "We gotta book."

"What book?" Kay asked a moment before she appeared in the castle doorway. Her jaw dropped as she caught sight of the working Stargate.

"Move it!" Faith shouted as the 'Gate flickered with a crackling static sound next to her.

Shutting her jaw with a snap Faith could hear over the rumbling thunder, Kay moved, running towards her. Grabbing her as soon as she came into reach, Faith literally threw Kay through the Stargate. It flickered again and she lost no time in jumping into the wormhole and out the other side.

**l**

After an undignified rush by them all for the holo-room podium in which a lemon and Sam's sharp elbows featured heavily, Vala managed to squeeze to the front of the crowd and onto the podium. Pausing only to poke her tongue out at the others, she turned to face the woman who appeared in the centre of the platform.

"Is that her?" Sam asked Daniel as the hologram greeted them.

"That's her," Daniel confirmed.

"Power levels are falling consistently with normal use of the holo-room," McKay told them, hunched over his computer tablet.

"So it's _not_ her?" said Cam.

"Hello," Vala greeted the hologram. "What can you tell us about Altar Conclavum?"

"Altar Conclavum is the site of the Concilarium," the hologram informed her. She faded from sight, to be replaced by the image of a sunlit castle near a cliff as her disembodied voice continued. "The purpose of the Conciliarum-"

Daniel swore, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes with one hand.

"-Was to facilitate relations between the Lanteans and three other sentient races," the hologram informed them as Vala turned around to look at Daniel.

"What?" she asked him.

"We've been there," Sam told her grimly.


	12. Breakaway

**A/N**

Happy holidays everyone!

**Breakaway**

Paying absolutely no attention to the magnificent sunset in front of her, Faith ran lightly down the stone platform to join Mallie and Kay as the Stargate behind her flickered once or twice and shut down. The clearing around them was littered with fallen stones and there was _moss_ growing on the Mushroom Control Thingy. At first glance it looked like another long abandoned planet and Faith's spirits sank.

"Where are we?" she asked the others, hoping they'd know.

"I don't know," Kay answered as Mallie shrugged beside her. "I've never been here before."

"Okay..." Faith glanced around the clearing, shivering as the chill air pressed in on her. "I guess... we should make a camp."

Turning, Faith led the others towards the tree line, still struggling to process the day's events. Last night's nightmare seemed almost as far away as the planet they'd just left. So much had happened so quickly...

Her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly and Faith was reminded that they'd been about to eat when Cam had done... whatever the hell it was he had done. And how beyond screwed was it that while the Mind-Melder was still affecting her, she couldn't contact Cam no matter how hard she tried? Her stomach rumbled again and Faith wheeled round to face the two slayers following her.

"You guys hungry?"

"Starving!" Mallie moaned, clutching her stomach dramatically.

"Might as well make camp here," Faith said. The light was slowly fading from the sky and Faith figured that one clearing was just as good as another. "What have we got to eat?"

"The pre-packaged meals and chocolate," Mallie told Faith as the brunette woman patted her pockets with a frown.

"Where the fuck is my lighter?" Faith's confused gaze met Kay and Mallie's blank ones and the Tau'ri slayer groaned. "We left it behind, didn't we?"

"Um... yes?" said Kay.

"I can make a fire if you find some dry wood," Mallie offered, putting the cases she carried down.

Shrugging, Faith headed into the wood. At least she still had her cigarettes, even if she couldn't finish the one she'd started earlier until they had a fire going. Losing her lighter had put her in a bad mood and she kicked out at a nearby stone.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she berated herself as she prowled the forest floor, snatching up hapless pieces of wood with a scowl. Why hadn't she checked her pockets sooner? Her arms full, she turned around, stalking back to the clearing and dumping the wood in front of the waiting Mallie.

"Dry enough?"

Kay watched from a safe distance, busying herself with the various animal hides they had brought with them as Mallie hesitantly agreed, carefully selecting two suitable pieces of wood and settling down to start the difficult process of creating fire while a glowering Faith stood over her, her arms crossed. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to ask Faith about cam. Picking up another hide, she ran her hand carefully over it. No, it was wet. Setting the fur aside to be dried once they had a fire going, Kay picked up another.

The tales Faith told of the Tau'ri homeworld, of _Earth_, fascinated her. The idea of a world where the majority of the population lived their lives in ignorance of both the Goa'uld and Ori _and_ of the demons that infested their own planet seemed incredible to her. Yet Faith assured her that it was so and every new story that she told only served to further emphasise it.

Spying the tiny tendril of smoke as she folded the last fur, Kay stood, brushing off her long skirt. They would need more wood if they wanted to keep the fire going long enough to actually cook something, even if it was those strange Tau'ri... Kay was loath to call them meals.

Engrossed in the sight of Mallie creating fire by rubbing two sticks together, Faith didn't notice the older woman leave the clearing. Sure, people said that shit was possible, but Faith hadn't really believed it until she saw it. Already Mallie was carefully blowing the small flame into life, feeding it dry leaves and small twigs until she had a small blaze big enough to start laying the larger pieces on.

Suddenly remembering why she was there, Faith dragged her cigarette packet out of her damp pocket. Selecting a burning stick from the fire, she lit the cigarette, puffing the first drag straight back out before she sucked the next into her lungs. Closing her eyes and tilting her head back, she savoured the sensation of the nicotine spreading through her body as she held her breath for as long as possible before letting it out with a sigh.

God, that was good! Opening her eyes as she continued to smoke, Faith realised how dark it had gotten. Even with her enhanced sight, it was difficult to make out anything beyond the tree line.

"Where's Kay?" she asked, noticing that the older woman was missing. Great, that was all she needed... to start losing 'em!

"Here," The woman in question replied, appearing from the dark forest with her arms full of wood. "Is there anything to drink?"

Malina blinked as Faith looked at her. Did they mean _her_?

"Uh... no," she said slowly, mentally reviewing every single thing she had brought as she fed wood to the fire. "We left the waterbags on the raft."

"Damn," Faith swore absently. "Okay, no chocolate tonight."

"Aw... why?" Malina whined.

"It'll make you thirstier," Faith informed her. "Trust me."

"I couldn't find any bracken," Kay said, spreading several furs out near the fire. "We'll have to sleep on the ground tonight."

Faith scowled as she stubbed out her cigarette. Could this planet get any worse?

**l**

Jool stretched as she woke. As incredible as it sounded, she actually felt better. Had her slayer immune system finally kicked in and started fighting the plague or was that just wishful thinking? She was sitting up and looking around when the door to her room slid back and Caroline entered, carrying a tray.

"Breakfast for the genius," she announced, holding the tray high before she placed it in Jool's lap.

Staring down at the loaded tray, Jool's mouth watered. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so hungry and she attacked the meal with relish. It was some minutes before she remembered her manners and looked up, swallowing a mouthful of bacon.

"Thank you," she said to Caroline, carving up a sausage. "What happened?"

"Oz woke up last night," Caroline told her and Jool's eyes flew to the monitors showing a very pale and human-looking Oz lying in his bed, his eyes closed. A lump that had nothing to do with the sausage she was eating rose in her throat.

"He was delirious and he passed out shortly after I arrived," Caroline continued. "But once we had him back in bed I ran some tests."

"And...?" Jool prompted, waving her knife in a circular 'carry on' motion when Caroline paused.

"He was generating enough antibodies to create a vaccine," Caroline said with a harried smile and Jool noticed for the first time how tired the other woman looked. "Long story short, we whipped up a batch and injected everyone in the night."

"That's why I don't feel like crap!" Jool realised.

Caroline smiled. "Glad to hear it," she yawned. "I'm off-duty for twenty-four hours so I'll see you tomorrow."

Engrossed in a pancake, Jool just nodded at her as she left. She felt great, she realised, glancing up at the monitors. Better than she had in days. Even the wounds that had been irritating her seemed to have healed.

Oz stirred and Jool dropped her knife and fork, her breakfast forgotten as she leaned forward. Was he waking up again? Oh, why wasn't sound included in the video feed?

**l**

Oz groaned as he opened his eyes and saw the grey SGC ceiling. So it hadn't been a dream then? He'd known it was too good to be true. He had to warn Willow! Jon's head popped into his field of vision and Oz frowned.

"Hey," Jon said, smiling. "How you feeling?"

"Jon?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened?" Oz asked, struggling into a sitting position.

"You've been sick," Jon told him, stepping back from his bed. "Picked up a bug from those fleas on P-whatever and gave it to half of the base before we realised."

"Huh," Oz said in a neutral tone.

Jon glanced at the door, "I should probably go fetch one of the doctors to come stick you with needles."

Oz gazed steadily at him, his face a stoic mask. Jon's eyes narrowed. Did he actually _want_ to get stuck with needles? C'mon, he was practically handing him the perfect out! The silence lengthened.

"Okay then..." Jon said finally, clapping his hands together. "I'm gonna go... and do that. You stay here and... don't do anything I wouldn't."

**l**

Jool watched as Oz nodded in reply to whatever it was Jon had said and Jon walked off camera. Oz continued to stare after him. Jool's attention was just returning to her breakfast when Oz exploded in action, tearing the wires attached to him off and standing. He swayed for a moment before pulling himself together and striding purposefully out of the camera's view.

Suddenly Jool realised that her mouth was hanging open and she was holding a forkful of forgotten food in mid-air.

**l**

"Going somewhere?"

The words hung in the air as Oz stepped out of the room they had been holding him in and he stopped. He'd known it was too easy when the door hadn't been locked, he thought bitterly.

"You can't stop me," he said, turning to face Jon.

"Wasn't gonna," Jon said, straightening from his slouched position against the wall. "But I'm thinking maybe I should. You look like crap."

It was true. The florescent lights only served to further enhance Oz's pallor and he was swaying where he stood. That didn't mean he was going to back down. As he turned to go, further down the corridor a door slid open and Jool rushed out, wearing a hospital gown identical to his.

"Oz!" she cried, noticing him. Her bare feet slapped against the concrete floor as she ran towards them. "What are you doing?"

"We've got to get out of here!" Oz said, grabbing her arm as she skidded to a halt. "They've been experimenting on us..."

"What?" Jool exclaimed, looking at Jon. He shrugged and she turned her attention back to Oz. "They, _we_, haven't! You've been sick." Grabbing Oz's hand as it fell from her arm, she continued, "That Prior on Terluna, he infected the dogs with a plague. They passed it to you through the fleas and then your fleas infected everyone they bit."

"Hence the gown," Oz realised slowly.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Jon exclaimed, stepping forward as Oz sagged and the Doc reached out to support him. "Look, you've got issues with the military, I get that. But I swear to you that these guys are not like that," he looked Oz directly in the eye, his gaze sincere. "They're on the level."

Leaning against the Doc, Oz looked searchingly back at Jon. Slowly, he nodded. "Cool," he said. "So... bed?"

"Bed!" Jool remembered. Picking Oz up, she carried him back into his room.

"Thought you were sick," Jon said, trailing after them.

"I got better."

"I see that."

**l**

Lying wrapped in furs by the fire's edge, Faith frowned in her sleep, rolling over so that her sheathed dagger was no longer jabbing into her. Smiling now, she snuggled deeper into the furs, not yet ready to get up and face the world.

Unfortunately the world had other plans, starting with the party of men on horseback picking their way into the clearing. Spying the bundle of furs and Faith's raven hair spilling across them, the man on the lead horse held his hand up sharply in a silent signal to his men to stop. They did, controlling their spirited mounts with ease despite the fact that they rode bareback.

Dismounting, the leader approached Faith with the rolling gait of one who had spent most of his life on a horse. Staring down at the sleeping woman, he felt something stir within his breast. Ruthlessly he suppressed it. Ignoring her striking features and creamy skin, he nudged her with his foot.

"Where is your man?" he asked harshly as her warm brown eyes opened.

She frowned up at him, the sleep clearing from her eyes, "What man?"

By law if she had no man to protect her then she belonged to whoever claimed her but he knew it would not be that simple. His chieftain had only to look upon her to want her for himself. She was a rare prize.... but let it never be said that Turak did not know what he owed to his chieftain. He bent and picked her up, furs and all.

"What the fuck? Put me down!" she protested.

Ignoring her, Turak carried her across the clearing, towards his horse. Her struggles were hampered by the furs she was wrapped in and he easily threw her up onto his horse before he mounted himself. Reaching around the woman, he gathered up the reins.

"Faith!"

Wheeling his horse around to face the direction of the cry, Turak watched Urgan and Bolg dismount to meet the women rushing towards them, their hair and faces uncovered. Turak frowned at their immodesty even while he marvelled at the sight of hair more golden than corn as his men approached the women with leering grins.

The oldest of the women, her hair shorter than a man's, lashed out as soon as his men were close enough, striking Urgan on the nose with her fist. As he fell to the ground, blood pouring from his face, Bolg leapt back, drawing his sword and holding his ground. Horses shifted as men reached for their weapons, advancing on the women.

"Stop!" the raven-haired beauty in front of him shouted.

The one with the golden hair halted her advance on Bolg, exchanging glances with her companion. Their hesitation lasted long enough for his other men to reach them and pull them on to their horses.

Turak eyed his captive speculatively as he collected Bolg and Urgan's horses and joined his men. His chances of successfully claiming her for his own had just risen substantially but underneath his elation, he felt uneasy. Her companions had acted more like seasoned warriors than women and yet they had obeyed her as he would his chieftain. They behaved more like women of legend than those of his tribe. What people were they of? Why were they here?

He had a feeling that to question them here would be a mistake. His men would not hesitate to report it to their chieftain and now that Bolg and Urgan, his nose still streaming blood, had mounted their horses the woman in his arms was growing tenser by the second. They had them, that was enough. Turning his horse towards home, he gathered the woman close to him. Her scent, fresh, salty and earthy all at the same time, reached him and he spurred his horse forward. This was madness!

**l**

The view from the balcony of the mess was generally agreed to be spectacular. Of course, _most_ of the views in Atlantis were spectacular but the one from the mess was generally thought to be one of the best and seats on the balcony were always in demand.

They were at a premium now but it had nothing to do with the brilliant sunshine or the turquoise colour of the ocean the city floated on. Nor was it the excellent breakfast the harried kitchen staff were serving that packed the balcony and window seats. It had something more to do with the whine of engines that filled the air, causing conversations to lull and heads to turn.

Beyond the soaring towers, on the outskirts of the city, the Odyssey gently lifted from the East pier, seeming to hover there for a moment. The pitch of its engines sharpened as the ship rose into the air and faded from earshot as it accelerated away, quickly disappearing into the sky. The silence it left behind hung for a moment and then was broken by the clatter of a cup meeting its saucer.

Conversations sprang to life again as the residents of Atlantis resumed everyday life. Not all of the occupants of the balcony were members of the Atlantis expedition however. On one of the tables nearest the edge, a prized location, four residents of Earth were turning their attention back to their breakfasts.

One of them in particular was especially glad to see the back of the Odyssey. Having had the best night's sleep he had had since they left Earth, Cam was inclined to place the blame for his recent insomnia on the close confines and boredom he had endured during their trip. Not that he had suffered from the problem during his tour of duty as one of the Odyssey's F-302 pilots, but Cam was astute enough to realise that since his crash in Antarctica and his subsequent rehabilitation he didn't cope well with forced inactivity.

That was why he was so pleased that they weren't returning with the Odyssey for the three week trek back to Earth. Instead, armed with the addresses Jackson had been given by Morgan le Fay and with the blessing of Elizabeth Weir, they would be travelling back to Earth with Atlantis' scheduled update tomorrow.

It would be good to get back home... and even better to find out what progress SG-13 had made on their search for Faith. Had they found her yet? Was she back on Earth? Anticipation began to fizz through his veins like champagne at the thought.

"Cam?" Sam's voice cut across his imaginings and Cam turned his gaze to her, realising that she'd just asked him a question.

"Yeah?"

"Great," Jackson said, grinning, and Cam wondered just what he'd agreed to. "I'll see you guys at lunch." Pushing back his chair and picking up his empty tray, he stood, walking away.

"I'd better get going too," Sam said, glancing at her watch.

"So..." said Vala, licking her spoon and setting her empty yoghurt pot to one side as Sam left. "What are we doing?"

So that was what he had accidentally agreed to. Well, one of them had to keep an eye on the former thief. Jackson and Sam were going to be spending the day in geek-heaven and probably wouldn't notice if a bomb went off next to them. It was probably best if she spent the day with him. After all he didn't have any definite plans other than...

"Going to the infirmary," he told her.

"Are you sick?" Vala asked him, looking concerned.

"Nope," Cam said. He had a very good reason for wanting to go to the infirmary. Leaning forward, he began to tell Vala about the Ancient gene therapy that was only available in the Pegasus galaxy.

**l**

Sat sideways over the horse's shoulders as they hurtled through the forest, it was an effort for Faith to remain in her seat. Not just difficult, because it was definitely that, but also so tempting to just allow their rapid pace and the difficulties of the terrain to tip her from the horse's back. One glance at her captor's implacable face however, was all it took to convince her that it would be a bad idea.

Yeah, she could rely on Mallie and Kay to catch on quick but they would still be separated and this guy, he looked like the type who'd come back. The horses burst out from the forest onto a rolling plain and Faith's eyes narrowed at the sight of tents in the distance. Was that where they were going? Seeing as how they were directly in front of them, she was gonna go with yes.

"You live there?" Faith asked her captor.

He ignored her and she turned her attention back to the camp. The itchy feeling she had had ever since they had arrived through the 'Gate was getting stronger as they approached the huddled tents. Whatever it was that was causing it, it was in that camp and it was oppressively familiar. Suddenly Faith had a very bad feeling.

Horribly jolted, Kay sagged in relief when her captor slowed his horse at the edge of the camp. Her stomach cramped painfully as the group picked their way through the tents but that didn't stop her from taking in every detail. Every detail except one... Where were all the women?

"Have you no shame?" her captor growled. "Cover your head," he added when she looked at him blankly.

With what? Her skirt? Kay snorted with hastily suppressed laughter at the thought of his reaction. A light blow landed on the side of her head and she turned her head to glare at the man behind her.

Reining in his horse, Turak drew the animal to a halt outside the women's camp. Dismounting as his men halted around him, he pulled the woman from his horse and into his arms. Savouring the feeling of her body against his in what could well be the last moments he had with her, Turak pressed her closer, carrying her to the hangings of the women's camp despite the stares of his men.

Gently setting her on her feet he stared into her puzzled brown eyes, committing her loveliness to memory. Slowly he nodded, turning her to face the hangings as Klar and Tekkel approached with the other women.

"Fare well," he told her softly so his men would not hear, urging her through the hangings and into the women's camp.

It was almost a relief to step through the rough blankets and away from the glares from the men in the camp. Normally Faith revelled in the stares of men, deliberately dressing to attract them. It made her feel powerful and secure in a way that she hadn't as a child. She knew that she was strong enough to put down any guy who got the wrong idea and now she had the control to make sure he didn't stay down for good.

But the stares from the men they had encountered during the ride through the camp had been filled with disgust, bringing back all of her old insecurities. She had felt herself getting smaller and smaller, hunching in on herself and had been unable to stop.

This enclosure couldn't be more different than the rest of the camp. It was filled with bustling women in dark robes who stopped what they were doing to turn curious faces in her direction as Kay and Mallie were thrust through the blankets to join her. Exclaiming loudly, the women advanced on them.

Instinctively, the slayers drew closer together, falling into defensive stances. Unable to hear any one woman over them all, Faith studied their faces, open and curious as they surrounded them, gesturing wildly as they each chattered to anyone who would listen.

Reaching the conclusion that the women meant them no harm, Faith relaxed her guard. One of the women closest to her stretched out a hesitant hand and stroked her arm and Faith looked down, realising for the first time that she was still wrapped in the furs she had slept in. Shrugging them off, she offered the fur the woman was admiring to her.

The woman paled, disappearing back into the crowd as a deathly hush fell over it. Those closest to Faith moved away, twitching their robes further from her. Faith frowned, suddenly feeling like a leper.

"What?" she demanded harshly, still holding the fur out.

The crowd rippled and shifted as a young woman pushed her way to the front. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the three slayers and then she darted forward to take Faith by the hand.

"Come with me," she said urgently.

Unnerved by the silent staring women, Faith let her lead her through the camp and into an adjoining tent with only a backwards glance to check that Mallie and Kay were following.

"What the hell was that?" Faith demanded to know, taking in the interior of the tent with a glance and turning to the strange woman.

"Forgive them," The woman said, rummaging through a chest. "You must understand... it is death for a woman to wear a man's clothes." Finding what she sought, she stood, returning to Faith to hold a robe similar to her own up against her, judging the fit by eye. Satisfied, she nodded, offering the robe to her.

"Death?" Mallie questioned, horrified, as Faith hesitated.

"By fire," the woman confirmed, pressing the robes into Faith's hand. "You must change before Chakka summons you."

"Who are you?" Faith asked, struggling to understand why the woman looked so familiar.

"Why are you helping us?" Kay added suspiciously.

"I am Nya," she introduced herself with a small smile. "You are of Sam's tribe are you not?"

"Sam? Sam Carter?" asked Faith, shocked as Nya nodded. "How the fuck do you know Sam?"

"Many years ago she travelled to these lands," Nya said, unsettled by the dark-haired woman's intensity. "She saved my life. I would return the favour. You must change!"

With jerky movements, the woman began to undo the fastenings of her shirt. Nya's eyes widened when she stripped it off to briefly reveal a wide scar on her stomach before she dropped the robe over her head and it fell down to cover her.

"Might I know your names?" she asked them.

"I'm Faith," the dark-haired woman said, standing on one leg as she tugged her leg-garb off over her boots.

"Kay."

"Malina."

Nya nodded, committing their names to memory before a slight sound by the entrance of the tent drew her attention. "Who's there?" she called.

"Halma," the reply came. "Chakka has summoned them. I am to escort them to his presence."

"Go," Nya advised them. "Remember to keep your eyes on the ground and not to speak unless you are spoken to and all will be well."

"Who is this Chakka guy anyway?" Faith asked her.

"He is the chieftain of this tribe and holds your lives in his hand," Nya told them. "Do not anger him by keeping him waiting."

Exchanging dubious looks between themselves, they left and Nya was left alone in the store-tent. Sitting down on one of the trunks , she pressed a hand to her chest as she took a moment to sort through her turbulent emotions.

So much had happened to her since Sam had saved her life and yet she had never forgotten the female chieftain. Her actions so many years ago had given Nya the happiest time of her life. Bittersweet memories rose and she ruthlessly suppressed them.

That time had passed. It was now she had to think about. Women from Sam's tribe would never submit to a man's rule. They would escape and, perhaps, she could too.

Picking up Faith's strange clothing, she wondered where she could hide... Blood?

**l**

Shepherded into a luxurious tent along with the others, Malina was unable to keep her eyes on the ground as Nya had advised. Sneaking a peek up at the hatchet-faced man sitting on the only chair in sight, Malina felt revulsion take a firm grip on her empty stomach. Nya had forgotten to mention that Chakka was both ugly and old. He looked at her and Malina dropped her gaze to the carpeted ground.

"So..." he said, rising. "These are the women my men have found for me."

Malina could _hear_ the smile on his face and her flesh crawled as he came closer, stopping inches away from her. There was a slight flaw in the weave of the carpet and she focussed on that as he stared at her.

"Look at me," he ordered and she did. He nodded, looking satisfied and something in his cold eyes made her shiver as he turned his attention to Kay, "Such spirit!"

Kay was staring straight at him! Horrified, Malina couldn't help but watch as the older woman sneered at the man. Chakka wasn't fazed in the slightest, chuckling slightly. "I look forward to breaking it," he told Kay and her glare hardened.

Damn, if looks could kill then this creep would be dust right about now, Faith thought, admiring Kay's guts for taking a stand against him. She looked like she wanted to claw his eyes out, her hands cramped into talons. She looked like she was about to lose control, Faith realised.

"Hey!" Faith said as Nya entered the tent behind Chakka. "What about me?"

As she'd intended, she got his attention. Outraged by her insolence, Chakka pulled his fist back to hit her. Nya dashed between them and Faith prepared herself to catch the slight woman as Chakka's fist descended.

Instead of crumpling under the blow, Nya merely staggered and immediately prostrated threw herself at Chakka's feet. The punch should have knocked her to the ground. Faith's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she watched Nya beg for Chakka's forgiveness.

"If you value your soul, do not touch these women," she was saying now. "They are unclean!"

And Faith was back to feeling like a leper.

Snarling, Chakka savagely kicked out at the grovelling Nya and stalked from the tent. Probably gone to torture a puppy, Faith thought, turning to the woman Kay was helping to stand.

"Unclean?"

"I saw the blood on your garments," Nya explained. "You are undergoing the woman's curse. According to the beliefs of my people, a man who comes into contact with a woman at this time may lose his soul to her."

"But how did you know that Kay and I are experiencing our moontime as well?" asked Mallie.

Nya blinked, "You are?"

Faith felt a flicker of surprise at the news but the situation wasn't unheard of. PMT week was fast gaining a rep in the demon communities back on Earth. She was more concerned with the voices she could hear approaching the tent. One of them sounded disturbingly familiar...

"We cannot stay here," Nya said urgently, beckoning them towards the entrance to the women's camp.

With a glance at the other exit, Faith followed her out of the tent, Mallie and Kay close beside her. The women on the other side eyed them warily and kept their distance as Nya led them to yet another tent. Faith felt a sudden longing for grey walls.

"This is the area set aside for those suffering their curse," Nya told them.

"Cosy," said Faith, barely glancing around the deserted room. "What happened two years ago?"

"What?" asked Nya.

"Two years ago you heard a voice, asking if you wanted to be strong," Faith told her. "You answered yes and got stronger, faster, _better_. So I'm wondering what happened to you two years ago to make you say yes."

"How can you know that?" Nya whispered, shaken.

"It happened to us too!" Mallie said excitedly. "Not Faith, she was already a slayer, but Kay and I became slayers the same way."

"Slayers?" Nya looked horrified.

Faith sighed. Time for the speech. Where was Giles when you needed him?

**l**

"What?" Cam asked, wondering if he had heard right.

"You already have the Ancient gene," Dr Carson repeated patiently. "I canna give you the treatment."

"But I'm still okay to have it, right?" Vala checked.

"Yes, lass," Carson smiled gently at her.

"No, no, no!" Cam said, jumping off the hospital bed. "You've made a mistake. I don't have the gene."

"I've checked the results twice," Carson told him. "I assure you Colonel, you do have the Ancient gene. It's weak though and there are some strange anomalies there that could explain why it hasn't been detected sooner." Carson sighed, "I could check again," he offered. "But there's really no point."

"I don't know why you're complaining," Vala said to Cam. "I've got to have another needle stuck in me and it might not even work."

"What kind of anomalies?" Cam asked, ignoring her.

"Well, everybody's gene varies slightly but you see these markers here, here and here?" Carson said, pointing to three flagged areas on his screen. Cam nodded, not sure what he was looking at but going along with it.

"I've never seen them before," said Carson. "Also, everything indicates that it should be a strong gene but it's barely registering and half of the technology I'm using to detect it is Ancient."

"Huh," Cam said, not knowing what else to say.

"What does it mean?" asked Vala, interested despite herself.

"I'm not sure," Carson admitted. "You're leaving tomorrow morning, aye?"

"Yeah," Cam confirmed.

Carson nodded, reaching for a hypodermic needle, "Stop by before you go and I'll give you a copy of my notes to give to Doctor Lam," he said and turned to Vala with a genial smile. "Now, if you'll just hop up onto the bed, we'll see what we can do about activating your Ancient gene."

**l**

Dressed in a protective hazmat suit, General Landry descended the staircase from the briefing room to the control room halfway between level twenty-seven and twenty-eight, on one of his routine tours through the sensitive areas of his command despite the poisonous fumes drifting through half of the base. After several days of the fumigation process he was becoming used to the claustrophobic hazmat suit and prided himself on being able to able to recognise the distorted voices of those under his command. Speaking of which...

"Captain O'Neil," Hank frowned at the two people clustered around Walter and his station, "Mr Wells."

"Sir," O'Neil greeted, turning to face him.

"G-General."

It hadn't escaped Hank's notice that after weeks under his command, Andrew Wells was still scared of him. He carefully smoothed the frown from his brow as he looked at them, "What are you still doing here?"

"Uh..." Wells said, looking up at O'Neil for guidance.

The young Captain was working out well, despite his youth and mysterious background. He led his civilian team with confidence and a subtle authority that they responded well to. As proven by the security footage of Osbourne's attempt to leave the infirmary that he'd watched not more than an hour ago.

"I'm ordering the pair of you off-base for the next twenty-four hours," Hank said before Captain O'Neil could answer his previous question. "Go home. Relax."

"But sir," O'Neil objected.

"You haven't left the base since you brought Osbourne in. Go," Hank advised. "Before I make it forty-eight hours."

Grudgingly they left the control room. Hank watched them go, making a mental note to check that they'd left with the checkpoint guards when he got back to his office. He wouldn't put it past O'Neil to visit his team-members in the infirmary before he left.

"Unauthorised off-world activation!" Walter called out as the Stargate began to spin. "Receiving IDC," he added when the computer terminal in front of him flashed a message at him. "It's Teal'c."

"Open a channel," Hank ordered.

Already typing the command, Walter nodded to the General as soon as it was done.

"Teal'c, this is General Landry," Landry said.

"General," Teal'c' voice echoed through the control room. "Is there a problem?"

"You could say that," Landry told him wryly. "The 'Gateroom is currently undergoing fumigation. I'm afraid that it won't be safe for you to return for another six hours."

"Fumigation?"

Inside his hazmat suit, Landry smiled, "Indeed."

The offended silence echoed across millions of light years as Walter gaped up at General Landry. Had he just mocked Teal'c?

"Very well," Teal'c rumbled eventually. "I shall return in six hours."

"How did the mission go?" Landry asked.

With a crackle of displaced energy, the Stargate shut down. General Landry looked incredulously at Walter.

"Did he just hang up on me?"

**l**

"And all this happened at the Sea of Ogda?" Nya asked, her eyes wide as Faith finished the story of the battle against The First and the activation of all of the potential slayers.

Faith hesitated, grimacing. "Not exactly," she admitted, leaning forward as Nya frowned. "You ever hear about a large stone ring standing upright stuck in here?"

"It's known as a Chapp'ai," Kay added helpfully as Nya slowly shook her head.

The confusion cleared from Nya's face and she nodded enthusiastically. "The demon circle," she said, leaning forward to be better heard of the rising babble of sound from outside. "I have heard stories of it. The men avoid it. Legend says the demons brought us into being from it long ago, at the dawn of time and that one day they will return through it. It is the Hellmouth?"

"No," Faith said baldly. "Hellmouths are only on Earth," she sighed, rubbing her aching forehead. "I think.

"See, on my planet we call the... Chapp'ai," said Faith, glancing at Kay to make sure she was saying it right. Kay nodded and Faith continued, "A Stargate. There's one on Mallie's planet, and Kay's and on a shit-load more. They were made a long, long time ago... in a galaxy far, far away," she added with a smirk, little knowing how correct the Star Wars reference was. "And if you know how to use 'em right, they take you to a different planet like _that_!" she snapped her fingers. "We buried the one on my planet thousands of years ago after... What the hell is going on out there?" she broke off to ask, glancing at the entrance to the women's camp as the noise from outside increased further.

Nya followed her gaze, "I will find out," she promised, slipping through the hangings before any of them had a chance to object, overwhelmed by dizzying thoughts of slayers, planets and the Chapp'ai.

Looking around the women's camp, she frowned. Instead of the usual industrious scene, the women of the camp stood excitedly chattering to each other, their various occupations abandoned. What had happened?

**l**

Neither Sam nor Jackson showed for lunch. Restless and irritated beyond belief by Vala's never-ending chatter, Cam tracked Jackson down in the holo-room loudly arguing with McKay. Standing in the doorway, listening to the two insult each other's ancestry, he decided that he really didn't want to know what it was about.

"Hey!" he said loudly. They stopped arguing and turned to look, identical expressions of surprise on their faces. Cam tilted his head towards Vala, "Tag, you're it."

He didn't stick around to watch their reactions, striding off down the hallway towards the stairs to the puddlejumper bay.

He'd wanted to fly one of the Ancient ships ever since he had first heard of them and now... he had both the opportunity and the Ancient gene necessary to do so. Thinking about the Ancient gene only agitated him further and he practically ran up the stairs and into the deserted jumper bay.

There were several of the tubular ships resting around the room and he took a moment to appreciate the Ancient design. Sleek and sturdy, the machines had survived the millennia well. The metal of the jumper closest to him felt cold and slightly rough under his fingertips as he ran his hand over its side, walking around it. The hatch was open and he walked inside, barely sparing a glance for the well-stocked cargo nets and smooth benches as he headed straight for the controls. Slipping into one of the chairs, he hesitated rather than reach directly for the controls, still not fully convinced that it would work.

Was it really possible that he had the Ancient gene? The gene-testing procedure back on Earth was exhaustive; the higher-ups were always looking to recruit carriers into either the Stargate program or the Atlantis mission. Neither the initial test he had had back when he had been accepted into the F-302 program nor the routine genetic profiling he had undergone since his transfer to the SGC had detected it. Everything in him screamed that it wasn't possible. Not without the gene therapy.

Suddenly impatient with his own hesitancy, Cam firmly grasped the controls of the puddlejumper. With an electronic chirrup, the ancient machine sprang to life, some sort of Ancient read-out lighting up on the window.

Carson had said he was using Ancient technology, he reminded himself, a slight, uneasy smile twisting his lips. Now... how was he supposed to fly the jumper without knowing Ancient?

The ship responded to his thought, machinery behind him whirring as the hatch slid slowly up and, less slowly, the jumper rose into the air. Eager to take the puddlejumper through its paces, Cam accelerated through the hangar exit and up into the blue sky.

**l**

Standing at the entrance to the tent, Nya hesitated, bracing herself for the next set of revelations. She had been away from Faith and the others for much longer than she had anticipated and she hoped that the cooking pot she carried would make up for it.

The sound of flesh striking flesh came from within the tent and Nya anxiously hurried inside in time to see Kay block Malina's punch and jab her in the stomach. Setting the pot down as Malina retaliated by unleashing a flurry of blows that Kay mostly managed to block, Nya dashed forward to stop them.

"Stop!" Faith ordered and all three obeyed.

As though nothing unusual had occurred, the dark-haired woman rose sinuously from a couch and walked towards them, "Good," she said. "Mallie, you're still dropping that shoulder and neither a you are kickin' anywhere near enough but you're getting better." Turning to Nya, she smiled. "Good reflexes."

Nya shut her mouth. Then, opened it again, "You...they... were _practising_?" She needed to sit down.

"Sparring," Faith corrected as Nya sat.

Catching Mallie's eye, Faith nodded at the cooking pot. Catching on, she retrieved it from the floor as Faith moved closer to Nya, looking down at her.

"You ever hit anyone?" Faith asked casually.

Nya nodded. "Once," she whispered.

"Two years ago," Faith stated. Nya nodded again, staring at her hands. "Tell me," Faith invited.

"You must promise first!" Nya said, looking up at her.

"Promise what?" Faith asked, wary of making promises that she couldn't keep.

"Promise that when you leave here you will take us with you," Nya said fiercely.

Was that all? "Already gonna," Faith told her. "Wait... us?"

Nya darted from the tent and Faith swore. Did Nya expect her to take all the women trapped here with them? She found herself patting the robe she wore in search of her cigarettes and swore again, resorting to pacing instead.

Only to come to a screeching halt when Nya came back... holding the hand of a young dark-haired girl. Mallie missed the bowl in front of her, ladling soup over the carpet instead. The kid took one look at them and popped its thumb into its mouth.

"Chaia, I want you to meet some friends of mine," Nya said to the kid. "This is Faith, Kay and Malina. They know Sam." Nya straightened, placing both hands on the kid's shoulders as she looked Faith in the eye. "Chaia is my daughter."

Shit! This was going to complicate things.

**l**

"Incoming wormhole!" Walter announced, his hand hovering over the iris controls despite the fact that it was a scheduled connection.

It felt good to be out of the hazmat suits and back to normal. Well, as normal as life got under NORAD. Apparently, Bill Lee had already managed to electrocute himself twice since returning to work. The previously empty corridors of the SGC were once more full of bustling personnel and the stranded SG teams were due to return from the Alpha site in another hour.

"Receiving Teal'c' IDC," Walter confirmed as General Landry swept down the stairs out of the room.

Moments later, the General strode into the 'Gateroom below just as Teal'c stepped through the event horizon, the two of them meeting at the bottom of the ramp.

"Teal'c," General Landry greeted him as Teal'c respectfully inclined his head.

"General Landry."

"I'm sorry we weren't able to let you through earlier," Landry apologised.

"It is good that you were not," Teal'c told him as the two men left the 'Gateroom, side by side. "During the additional hours I spent on Duran I heard rumours of three human women of unparalleled strength who fought in the battle for Gavas."

General Landry stopped walking, "Faith?"

"Her description was most accurate."

"_Three_ women?" Landry said, walking forward towards the elevators once again.

"Indeed."

Pressing the button to call the elevator, Hank mused on the news. It seemed Faith was collecting slayers just as prophesised. He wasn't clear on whether that was a good thing or not. He really needed to schedule a debrief with Andrew Wells when Doctor Jackson returned. Speaking of which...

"How was the mission?" Hank asked as the elevator arrived.

"I am pleased to be able to report that it was an unqualified success," Teal'c told him.

"Colonel Carter managed to make the jump?" Hank asked, smiling at the good news.

"Destroying both a Wraith ship and an Ori battleship in the process," said Teal'c. One corner of his firm mouth twitched slightly as General Landry stared at him open-jawed.

**l**

She wasn't good with kids. She knew it, B knew it, hell everyone knew it! It was why she didn't have any contact with the newbies, working as a solo agent for the new Council instead. Apparently the Powers were the only ones who hadn't got the message.

Rounding up all the slayers scattered across space was one thing... even if Faith still didn't understand how she was supposed to do it. But doing it with a kid in tow was something else. So far they'd been in two battles, held captive twice and had spent weeks stranded on an uninhabited planet. How could she expose a kid to that kind of life? It would make her shitty childhood look like a walk in the park. During the day.

"Faith?"

Blinking, Faith turned to Mallie, "What?"

"More stew?"

Looking down, Faith realised that she had scraped the bowl clean. When had that happened?

"Yeah," she said and Mallie ladled another serving into her bowl.

"What about you, Chaia?" Mallie asked.

The kid shook her head. For some reason she had chosen to sit between Faith and her mother. Probably because they were the only two dressed in robes, Faith thought.

Fuck! A kid?

She really needed a cigarette.

"What was all the commotion about?" Kay asked Nya. "Earlier," she added when the dejected woman merely looked blank.

"Oh!" Nya perked up, looking excited. "We have been given permission to attend prostration with the men."

Deep in thought, Faith was barely paying attention to the conversation. Consequently Nya's announcement took several moments to seep into her consciousness.

"What is prostration?" Malina asked curiously.

"I am not sure," Nya admitted.

"What?" Faith demanded, suddenly catching up.

"I-I know that the men pray to the Gods there," said Nya. "But this is the first time we will be allowed to join them. The Prior convinced Chakka to allow it."

"Prior!" Mallie yelped, rearing back.

Faith closed her eyes, her worst fears confirmed. At least it explained the nagging itch that had been bugging her ever since they had arrived.

"What is it?" asked Nya, alarmed.

A fucking nightmare, that's what it was. Was there anything else The Motherfucking Powers wanted to throw at them while they were slinging shit around? A hand clamped over her mouth and Faith suddenly realised she had been speaking out loud. Horrified, she glanced at the kid and then away quickly.

"Chaia, have you finished?" Nya said. The kid nodded, her brown eyes wide, and Nya smiled at her, "Then you may go."

Silently, the kid got up and left the tent, followed by four pairs of supernaturally enhanced eyes. As soon as she was gone, Kay removed her hand from Faith's mouth.

"Sorry," the older slayer apologised.

"Nah, we're good." Faith told her. "I gotta learn to watch my mouth round her."

"Then you will take us with you?" asked Nya, her face aglow with hope.

"Can't leave her here," Faith said. "Not if there's a Prior sniffing around."

"What are they?" Nya asked.

Sighing, Faith leant forward and began to explain.

**l**

In the Ancient puddlejumper orbiting above the blue planet of Lantia, Cam sat staring out of the window, although he barely saw the half-illumined world in front of him, fixated instead on the one person who was rapidly becoming an obsession with him. Faith.

What was it about her that made her different from every other woman he had known? It wasn't just the after-effects of the Mind-Melder affecting him; one of the memories he tried hardest to keep from her when they were joined by the device was of the first time he'd met her. Now, alone and in a different galaxy, in a ship which he shouldn't be able to fly, Cam let himself remember.

He had walked into the conference room behind Jackson and Sam and hadn't seen her sitting there until they had moved out of the way. She'd been grinning at them, her face bright and alive as she slipped a knife out of sight.

"Hey guys," she'd said, resting one hand on the crate he hadn't even noticed until that point. "Brought ya a present."

He'd stared at her, unable to do anything else, as his team had greeted her with familiarity. He'd already known that she was something special and then she'd lifted the Mind-Melder out of its box. He'd forced himself to concentrate on something other than her and the "present" she'd brought had ended up linking their minds.

He hadn't been able to ignore her then, and he had badly wanted to. She got under his skin, irritated him in a thousand different ways each day and still he wanted her. Aware that she could see his thoughts, he hadn't dared let himself think about her, denying the intensity of his attraction to her, even to himself. Until he couldn't any more.

Then they'd destroyed the Mind-Melder and she'd left. Without a backwards glance and he'd felt like she'd taken a part of him with her. But somehow she'd come back, just in time to save him and defeat the Black Knight.

If only he'd left her in Camelot. Or stayed with her aboard the Korolev. Maybe then she'd still be safe on Earth. Or maybe not...

He remembered the prophecy Jackson had spent days translating onboard the Odyssey and felt hollow. The idea of being an unwitting pawn in a war being waged on another plane of existence repelled him and he felt a sudden sympathy with the Ancients' policy of non-involvement. It was the same reason they were fighting the Ori. That, and fact that it was only a matter of time before they tried to convert Earth.

How did Faith cope when every day was a battle for her life on their behalf? She embraced the violence of being the slayer, but at what price? He had seen how difficult it was for her to connect with people. She put a good show on, but she never let down her guard, never let anyone in. Except, perhaps... towards the end... him.

A particularly strong hunger pang finally succeeded in breaking through his preoccupation and Cam straightened, gasping the controls and setting the puddlejumper on a course back to Atlantis, scoffing at the morbidity of his thoughts. He was thinking of Faith like she was dead. The end! That there was quitter talk.

**l**

"I miss chocolate," Mallie sighed, a bored expression on her face as she lay sprawled over one of the couches.

"We'll swing by and pick up our stuff before we leave," Faith promised, idly pacing.

Exchanging glances, the three slayers scattered around the tent sat up and paid attention. It was the first time she had mentioned even the possibility of escape. Just the thought that she viewed it as a certainty gave them fresh hope.

"You have a plan?"

"Kinda," Faith said. Frustratingly, she completed a few more laps before elaborating, "Prostration starts at sunset, right?"

**l**

Standing next to Walter in the control room, General Landry watched as SG-8 disappeared through the open Stargate in the room below. He hated sending teams in blind, but it was a necessary evil on planets controlled by the Ori. Sending a MALP through first would only alert the enemy that an SG-team was on the way.

He had wrestled for hours with problem of what to do with the information Teal'c had discovered. With SG-13 and many of his other teams unfit for duty, thanks to the latest Prior plague, he had finally decided to send SG-8. They were the best covert reconnaissance team he had, with a surprisingly low fatality rate when compared with the rest of the SG-teams. If anyone could discover if Faith was still on Davas, it would be them.

**l**

The sun was setting in the sky, brilliant red streaks of clouds stretching across the purple sky, as Faith fixed the veil over her face like Nya had shown her and left the tent, joining the group of women excitedly chattering by one of the cloth walls of the women's camp. They barely spared a glance for her, their thoughts more focussed on their imminent trek through the camp beyond their walls.

That was good. Hopefully, it would mean they were less likely to be missed, Faith thought to herself as one of the veiled women closest to the hangings held them aside and a sudden hush fell over the crowd. Hesitantly, the first woman stepped foot outside of their enclave, followed by another, and then another.

Slipping through the crowd, past a heavily veiled woman and child that she _thought_ might be Nya and the kid, Faith joined the procession before three more women were through. Her first glimpse of the world outside made her smile behind the veil.

Like she'd thought, the clearing outside the women's camp was too small to hold both the men and women of the camp. Apparently the Prior had figured that out too. Apart from the two men escorting them through the camp, the area was deserted. Prostration would have to be held outside the camp.

There were a couple of times during the walk through the empty camp when she could have slipped away and avoided the ceremony altogether but she couldn't be certain that she wouldn't be missed. Leaving now would only risk the others.

As the winding string of women reached the edges of the camp, Faith glanced back over her shoulder to see if she could spot the others, relieved when she couldn't. The plan depended on them blending into the crowd. She just hoped Mallie was keeping those blue eyes of hers fixed on the ground.

It was obvious now where they were going, as the man at the front of the column of women led them towards the milling crowd of men. As they approached, the men quieted their rowdy behaviour, clearly ill at ease with the women's inclusion in the ceremony. Grudgingly, and with many unfriendly looks, the men arranged themselves into rough lines, leaving the women to fall in behind them. Gradually the crowd settled, the solemn attitude of the men infecting the women.

In the first row of women, Faith was subject to the full force of the collective cold shoulder. Unlike the women around her, she didn't let it bother her, simultaneously concentrating on memorising her immediate surroundings and on the nebulous otherworldly sense she called slaydar. The Prior was close. Very close.

As if in response to some unseen signal, the men in front of her dropped to their knees, leaving their women exposed to the assessing gaze of the Prior who faced them. At first Faith only saw the grey skin and scars. Recognition of the features beneath took a few seconds to kick in.

She'd never thought she'd be grateful for a veil, she thought absently as the part of her which was concerned solely with survival registered the fact that women were dropping like flies and dragged her to the ground before she caught his attention, adrenaline pounding through her veins. Shit! _Mother_fucker! Damn, hell, crap, bollocks and every other swear word she could possibly think of. And a few she made up on the spot.

Four on one, they could probably take him but at what cost? He wouldn't go down without a fight, the men wouldn't take kindly to them attacking him and there were kids here. Where the fuck was Mallie? She couldn't look, couldn't move, couldn't do anything that might make him notice her and endanger the lives of innocent people.

The last sliver of sun disappeared below the horizon at the exact moment that he smiled at his congregation and Faith snarled silently at him, knowing that he couldn't see her expression. His face serene, he raised his hands to the sky and the staff he carried shone a bright blue. Around her, women gasped.

"Hallowed are the Ori," Praemas intoned.

**l**

Several hours later, Faith was definitely ready to kill someone, her control teetering on a knife-edge as all of her senses screamed at her that something was very wrong with the world right now. The only part of Praemas' sermon that penetrated the haze of her mental and physical battle to remain inconspicuous was a tale of the Orici and her all-female guard, the Oriclave. The story of women empowered by the Ori with great strength and speed sounded scarily familiar. The idea of being destined to serve as a personal bodyguard to a devil-spawned bitch bent on the subjugation of the galaxy was new though.

It sucked too. She got free health care and dental with the Council. And a generous clothing allowance that she mostly spent on her bike. What was Adria offering in comparison? Not much from the sound of it.

That was another thing. Praemas hadn't said a word about Adria's wicked fast growth spurt once she was born or mentioned the fact that she had a name. By contrast, her miraculous conception and Ori heritage appeared to be common knowledge.

Distantly she was aware that she was focussing on trivialities in an attempt to keep herself from slaying Praemas when he stood. It seemed to be working though. She was fucked if she knew how the other slayers hidden amongst the worshipping crowd were keeping themselves under control.

At least Praemas seemed to be wrapping things up here, the 'hallowed are the Ori's' coming thick and fast now. Finally, he allowed his congregation to stand. Faith sighed in relief as the unseen something she had been engrossed in fighting off flickered and died. Weirdly, her ears popped.

Almost immediately, the women began to disperse, heading back to the comfort of their time however, they travelled in small groups of two and three instead of single file. It was even easier than it would have been earlier for Faith to slip away and this time she did, ducking between two tents as soon as she was sure that no-one was looking her way.

The camp was still deserted, the men choosing to stay on the outskirts, clustered around the Prior, and the women travelling back to their enclosure. There were no fires and night had long since fallen, the moon the barest sliver in the sky. Despite this, Faith had no trouble navigating the camp. A shadow detached itself from a nearby tent and she froze as it split into three.

"Faith?" Mallie's whisper carried on the still night air and sounded dangerously loud.

"Shh!" Faith cautioned, recognising Mallie, Nya and the kid. "Where's Kay?"

"Here," a hoarse whisper floated out of the darkness a moment before Kay crept into sight.

"Lets go," Faith said, leading the way.

**l**

After answering as many of the men's questions as possible, Praemas accepted Chakka's invitation to dine with him. Walking back to the Chieftain's tent with him, Praemas subtly worked the topic of conversation around to the Orici's guard.

"...Reminded me of the legends of the Asenai," Chakka was saying now, holding back the flap of his tent so that Praemas could enter first. "Warrior women!" he shuddered. "It is against nature."

"I would not let the Orici hear you say that," Praemas warned. "She is very protective of the Oriclave."

Chakka snorted, "Better for her if it were the other way round."

"True," Praemas acknowledged. "But she is still seeking them out."

"They are not with her?"

"Not as yet," Praemas said. "But she has pledged to richly reward their home planets when she finds them."

Chakka stroked his beard, a sly light in his beady eyes. "Great speed and strength..." he mused. "I suppose it must be a recent change?"

"Not at all," Praemas told him. "The Oriclave were empowered when the Orici came of age," he lied smoothly. "Two years ago."

"Fetch Nya," Chakka ordered, barely looking at the veiled women waiting to serve them. Obediently, one of the women silently rose and left the tent and Chakka turned back to Praemas.

"Tell me more of this reward," Chakka said, his dark eyes bright with avarice.

It really was too easy, Praemas gloated to himself as he set about describing such riches as the barbarian in front of him could understand. Just as he thought that he might have to start repeating himself, the woman slipped back into the tent and hesitantly prostrated herself in front of her Chieftain. It was one of the few customs on this backward planet that Praemas approved of.

"Where is Nya?" Chakka demanded.

"Please... I could not find her," The woman whispered. "She and the newcomers have not been seen since Prostration."

With a snarl, Chakka kicked her, rising to his feet.

"Newcomers?" Praemas asked.

"Three women my men captured this morning," Chakka told him, leaving the tent.

Shouting loudly, he quickly marshalled his men around him. Busy explaining what had happened and organising the hunt for the missing women, he didn't notice when Praemas slipped away from the crowd.

**l**

Deep in thought, Turak groomed his horse with absent motions. Chakka still hadn't ruled on the fate on the women he had found earlier. This in itself was unusual and raised his hopes. Perhaps Chakka would look favourably on his claim to the young dark-haired one. His heart beat faster in his breast at the thought. A twig snapped behind him and he turned to see the Prior standing behind him.

"Prior," he greeted the holy man respectfully, bowing his head slightly.

"Turak," the Prior returned the greeting. His gaze moved past Turak to his horse, "You can ride that beast?"

"Yes," Turak said, glancing back at his horse. "You wish to go somewhere?"

Suddenly, the Prior's staff began to glow, casting the scene in an eerie blue light. Slowly, the Prior smiled.

"Yes."

Turak shivered.

**l**

It was hard for them to maintain a fast pace through the forest and Faith found herself travelling next to Nya. The other slayer was carrying her child in her arms and Faith glanced at the sleeping kid curiously.

"She okay?" Faith asked.

Nya nodded, "Thank you for allowing her to join us."

Uncomfortable with the gratitude in Nya's voice, Faith shrugged, "No big."

"No," Nya said intensely, struggling to find the right words. "It is big. You asked me what happened two years ago... Chaia did."

"She's two?" Faith yelped, horrified. She'd have pegged the kid for at least five.

"No," Nya frowned. "Chaia is six years old.

"Two years ago, she wandered out of the women's camp without her veil." Nya told Faith. "When Chakka found her, he dragged her back to the women's camp by her hair... I could hear her screams... "

Remembering, she clutched Chaia closer to her, "He hit her. So many times. He kept screaming that it was for her own good and then she stopped moving and he kept hitting... there was so much blood." Nya glanced up at Faith, "I think I would have sold my soul to stop him."

"That's why you said yes," Faith realised. "It was for her, wasn't it?"

"Always," Nya whispered, kissing the top of Chaia's sleeping head.

"I hope you kicked his ass," Faith told her fiercely.

"Uh..." Nya said, confused. "No. But I did hit him until _he_ stopped moving."

"Good for you," Kay's whispered approval drifted back to them.

Ahead, the forest lightened slightly and Faith realised that they were close to the clearing where they'd been captured earlier. Behind them, an eerie howling sounded in the distance and beside Faith, Nya stiffened in response.

"What is it?" asked Faith, concerned.

"Dogs," Nya gasped.

Dogs? Not good. Under normal circumstances, they should be able to easily outrun any pursuit the primitive camp could send after them, but this wasn't a normal pursuit. Nya was carrying the kid and Kay and Mallie were already in the clearing, picking up their belongings.

"Guys, we gotta jet!" Faith called across the clearing to the others. "Grab what you can and leave the rest."

Hopefully they were far enough ahead to make it to the Stargate. Recapture wasn't an option.

**l**

The baying of the dogs drew closer as they ran through the forest until Faith spent more time looking over her shoulder than at where she was running, expecting to see the animals appearing out of the darkness at any moment. Consequently, she didn't see the edge of the forest until she had broken though it, sliding down the slick slope of the Stargate clearing. Beside her, Nya stumbled and fell, dropping the kid. Ahead, Kay had reached the Stargate Mushroom and was hitting buttons.

The Stargate activated with a plume of energy and Nya stared open-mouthed at the sight as Mallie and Kay raced towards it.

"C'mon!" Faith shouted, dragging Nya to her feet.

**l**

Reining in his horse at the edge of the clearing, Turak stared at the awesome sight in front of him. A bright pool of water filled the Demon Circle, casting an eerie flickering light over the clearing as two of the runaway women ran into it and disappeared. Watching the two remaining women run towards it, one of them dragging a small girl child by the hand, Turak barely noticed the Prior slip down from their exhausted mount as the women reached the steps up to the circle. It wasn't until the Prior's staff suddenly lit up that he even remembered the holy man.

As one of the women reached the Demon Circle, the other woman and the child right behind her, the Prior swept his staff out before him in a sweeping gesture. Even as the woman in front disappeared into the rippling water, the last woman and the child both stumbled, the woman letting go of the child's hand as she fell, twisting her body in an effort to stop her forward momentum.

She tumbled into the pool of water as the child fell to the ground in front of the Demon Circle. Abruptly, the pool of water vanished, leaving the clearing as black as the night sky. Close by, dogs howled.


	13. Duran

**A/N**

For those of you who aren't aware, Slayers in Space and three of my other stories (including Visions of Vampires, the prequel to Slayers) have been nominated for a Crossing Over Award. If you're a member of Twisting The Hellmouth and enjoy reading this, please consider heading over there and voting for me.

As my way of saying thank you (and as an incentive to vote), I'm going to _try_ to not end this chapter on a cliff-hanger! Gasp! Shock! Horror! Don't faint... Just enjoy. And vote! ;)

**Duran**

The public room of The Broken Bashaak was crowded to the point of overflowing when the sturdy door opened, banging back on its hinges to admit four wild-looking human women into the room crowded with Jaffa. A chill wind followed them, swirling around the room as conversations trailed off into nothing, all eyes turning to the newcomers.

They were dressed in dark robes, carrying a motley collection of weapons and clearly exhausted. Two of them, the blonde youngest and a predatory brunette, stood defensively around the weakest member of their group, a weeping woman who clung to the oldest of them. As the owner of the tavern approached them, the eldest woman handed the weeping one to the young blonde and asked him for two rooms. A ripple of amusement filled the room and kick-started several conversations back up.

"Do they not know there is a war in progress?" Tark'l, a rather portly Jaffa bearing the mark of a Horus Guard on his brow, commented to the two other Jaffa at his table with a severe look at the human women.

Gelan, the youngest of the three and formerly of the Serpent Guard, looked away from the predatory woman as she caught his eye with a challenging grin. He got the distinct feeling that she was spoiling for a fight and he wasn't in the mood to oblige.

"Have you heard?" he said in a confidential tone, leaning forward over the table towards the others sat there. "Teal'c and the Tau'ri have succeeded in blocking the Ori Supergate. Now that they are cut off from their home galaxy, it is only a matter of time before we defeat them."

"The Tau'ri!" snorted Bo'Kel, an ancient Jaffa with the gold brand of Setesh burned into his forehead. "Is it just me or have things got worse since they reappeared?"

"So they have blocked a Supergate," Tark'l said, ignoring Bo'kel as most did. "What is to stop the Ori from simply building another?"

"Hey," The feminine voice came from behind Gelan and he twisted in his seat to see the predatory woman standing behind him, leaning on a staff weapon.

"Someone mention the Tau'ri?" she said.

"What is it to you?" said Tark'l, standing.

Evidently he _was_ in the mood to oblige her, Gelan thought, watching them. She looked Tark'l up and down... slowly... and then sneered at him. Next to Gelan, Tark'l bristled.

"I am one," she said slowly, as though speaking to one who was hard of understanding.

Several pieces of information suddenly clicked together in Gelan's brain. He barely heard Bo'kel's cackling laughter, staring up at the woman with rapt fascination.

"A fine joke," Bo'kel wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. "Tau'ri!" he chuckled again.

"You are Faith," Gelan said to the woman. "I am Gelan."

"Yeah, an' he's Tarzan and that's Jane," she said, indicating Tark'l and Bo'kel in turn. "So you heard a me?"

"Only that Teal'c searches for you," Gelan told her as she sat down next to him, taking off the Tau'ri weapon she wore slung over her shoulder and placing it on the table. "And that you were at Chulak and Hankor."

"Was I?" she shrugged absently, searching for somewhere to place her staff weapon. Twisting in her seat, she looked back at her companions.

"Yo, heads up, Kay!" she shouted as she launched the staff weapon through the air.

Without turning to look or pausing in her argument with the tavern owner, the oldest woman stretched out a hand and snatched the weapon from the air. For the second time that night, all conversation in the room stopped.

"You were saying?" the short-haired woman said to the tavern owner.

"I thought there were three of you," Gelan said quietly to Faith.

"Now there's four," she told him, looking grim.

Gelan frowned. What had he said to upset her so? Tark'l suddenly seemed to realise that he was still standing and sat down, scowling at Faith. She glowered back and it suddenly seemed as though a fight was about to break out after all when Kay appeared at the table, looking at Faith.

"We've got a room," she told her. "Are you coming?"

"Actually, I was gonna get drunk," Faith said bitterly. "We got enough money for that?"

Kay frowned, "I don't think so."

"Do we have enough for _a_ drink?"

"I will pay," Gelan told Faith, signalling the tavern owner skulking in the back of the room.

"I don't know what you heard but I'm not that kinda girl," Faith said, bristling. "Damn, never thought I'd say _that_!" she added under her breath.

"It is the least I can do for one who has fought in the defence of my homeworld," Gelan told her, bowing his head in respect.

She seemed unable to form words after that, opening and closing her mouth several times as he ordered a round of drinks from the tavern owner.

"You were on Chulak?" Kay asked Faith curiously as the tavern owner scuttled away.

"Uh..." Faith looked at Gelan and then away. "Yeah?"

"Teal'c says that you were," Gelan told her. "He would not lie."

"You spoke to T?" Faith brightened. "When? Is he here? What about the rest of SG-1?"

"I have not spoken with him myself," said Gelan. "Only to those who have. He was here today but returned to the Tau'ri homeworld several hours ago."

"Shit!" Faith said. "Look, I don't suppose you know the address do you?"

"You do not?" Gelan asked, surprised.

Bo'Kel was off again, cackling away at the thought of a Tau'ri not knowing the address for their own planet. Shooting him a poisonous look, Faith turned back to Gelan as their drinks arrived.

"No," she said baldly.

Gelan frowned, thinking about the problem as she drank. The address of the Tau'ri homeworld was still a closely guarded secret and one that he was not privy to. Only a select few Jaffa were trusted with the information and none of them resided on Duran.

"I do not know the address of Earth," he said slowly. "But I know that Master Bra'tac does."

"Great," Faith said, draining her tankard and setting it back down on the table with a metallic clunk. "Where is he? Let's go."

"Faith..." Kay said quietly to her as Gelan spoke. "You promised..."

"I believe that he is currently residing on Dakara."

"I know!" Faith said bitterly to Kay, cutting off whatever it was that the older woman might have gone on to say. "I know," she repeated, more quietly this time, staring glumly at her empty tankard.

Gelan signalled for another round of drinks. A gloomy silence settled over the table. Gelan stared at Faith, trying to reconcile the stories he had heard of a fearsome warrior with the almost broken-looking woman slumped over the table. Bo'Kel's cackles had faded into a series of wheezing coughs and the old Jaffa was a dangerous colour of purple. Casually, Faith reached over and thumped him on the back.

"So..." she said, turning to Gelan. "You got the address of this Dakara place?"

"I know it," Kay said quietly.

**l**

Sitting at his desk for the regularly scheduled update from Atlantis, Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman frowned as the active Stargate in front of him ripple. His hand hovering over the controls of the iris, he watched as four familiar figures emerged from the Ancient device. The hand suspended in mid-air slid away from the iris controls and over to the intercom system as the wormhole shut off.

"Uh, General Landry?" he said, pressing the button that would connect him to the Commander of the base.

"What is it Walter?" the General's voice was even more gruff than usual. He must have interrupted him when he was working on his paperwork.

"SG-1 have returned from Atlantis," Walter told him as the bickering group sauntered down the ramp.

"What?" General Landry's exclamation was shortly followed by the sound of his office door hurriedly opening and closing.

Footsteps sounded behind him as the General clattered down the stairs from the briefing room, through the control room and down the stairs into the hallway on level twenty-eight. Sighing, Walter made a mental note to switch the intercom in his office off.

In the hallway outside the Gateroom, General Landry was trying, unsuccessfully, not to look winded as he came face to face with his premier team and their probationary member. Straightening as he encountered their amused glances, he cleared his throat.

"Congratulations," he greeted them with a smile. "I understand from Teal'c that your mission was a success."

"Yes sir," Mitchell said with a smile and a glance at Colonel Carter.

"In more ways than one!" Vala said brightly.

"You found the address?" Hank asked, looking at Doctor Jackson.

They had halted the Ori invasion in its tracks _and_ discovered the location of Merlin's weapon in just one mission? No wonder Mitchell had been so insistent that SG-1 was more than just a designation. But why was Doctor Jackson grimacing?

"Actually, we found three!" Vala confided.

"Three?" Hank echoed, confused.

"Only two of them relate to Merlin's weapon," Doctor Jackson told him. "Morgan le Fay specifically said that the third had nothing to do with it," he reminded Vala.

Morgan le Fay? The Arthurian sorceress? Hank frowned.

"But she didn't say _why_ it lit up," Vala said to Doctor Jackson in a sing-song tone.

Hank could feel a headache inching its way into his temples. "I think you'd better report to the briefing room after the infirmary," he told them.

"More needles?" Vala asked, alarmed. "Do I have to?"

"Yes!" Mitchell and Doctor Jackson spoke at the same time as Hank.

Vala pouted but went along with the others as they moved off. Watching them disappear around the corner, Hank sighed. He'd sent them to find one 'Gate address and they'd come back with three. Only SG-1, he thought, smiling even as he shook his head.

Turning around, he headed back to the control room to give the order for three MALP's to be made ready and to requisition two Tylenol. He had a feeling he was going to need them.

**l**

"Finally!" Jool exclaimed as the door to her isolation room slid open and Caroline walked inside. "Donald wouldn't discharge me until you'd seen me. You should have been back hours ago, what happened?"

"Sorry," Caroline said with a stressed smile. "SG-1 came back sooner than expected and then there were unexpected complications with Colonel Mitchell... You get the idea."

"What kind of complications?" Jool asked curiously.

"Turns out he has the Ancient gene," Caroline told her absently, rifling through her chart. "Not that we can detect it," She looked up at the fully dressed slayer sitting bolt upright in the hospital bed and smiled. "Well, I can't see a reason for you to stay here..."

"I can go?" Jool asked excitedly.

"Yes."

"Thanks Caroline," Jool said, jumping off the bed and shoving her feet into her shoes. "I'll pick up my stuff later."

"Don't worry about it," Caroline said, leaving the room with her. "I'll have an airman drop it off at your quarters."

"Thanks," Jool repeated, dashing off in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" Caroline called after her.

"The gym!"

**l**

Wearied by Dreylock's snivelling as she listened to her explain exactly what Origin meant for her and the people of her planet, Adria greeted the arrival of Praemas with enthusiasm. Dismissing Dreylock, she turned to the tall Prior as soon as the humbled woman had left the council chambers.

"Well?" she said. "Where is she?"

His robes shifted and parted to reveal a small girl dressed in black robes. Her eyes looked very big as she sucked her thumb, staring up at Adria with a mixture of fear, defiance and curiosity. Adria stared back at the girl with disbelief.

"That," the leader of the Ori army said very quietly, flames licking around the edge of her irises. "Is not who I sent you to fetch."

"No," Praemas agreed, resting his free hand on Chaia's shoulder. "It is her daughter."

"Her daughter!" Adria hissed, the flames in her eyes burning brightly. "What use is her daughter to me?"

"I understand a mother will do much for her child," replied Praemas.

The fire in Adria's eyes died out abruptly. Mothers were a sensitive subject for the Orici, something which Praemas was counting on. He had failed her three times now and she was not known for her patience. Unless he could excite her interest in the girl his next mission might well be to sacrifice himself in the construction of a new Supergate.

"Did yours for you?" she said.

"The Orici knows all," Praemas said respectfully, bowing his head in obeisance.

Adria looked at him sharply, her perfect mouth pursed into a thin line. Praemas kept his gaze as blank as possible. Slowly, her gaze slid away from him to the girl.

"What is her name?" she asked.

**l**

Practically glowing, Jool bounced into Oz's room with a smile and a tray of food. The paler-than-usual werewolf smiled at her in greeting, pleased to see a familiar friendly face after almost twenty-four hours of seeing only medical personnel.

"Hey," Jool said. "Lunchtime."

"Thanks," said Oz, looking at the beige coloured macaroni and cheese with disappointment.

"Sorry it's taken me so long to come see you," Jool apologised, pulling a chair up to the bed. "Donald, Doctor Newman, wouldn't discharge me until Caroline had seen me but SG-1 came back early so she was late getting to me and then I went to the gym..."

Looking up from his unappetising meal at the Willow-worthy babble, Ox raised an eyebrow as he looked at the excited slayer in front of him. Had she been hooked up to a caffeine IV by mistake during her stay in the medical bay?

"...And then I sparred with Teal'c, you know, the one Andrew calls Grell, for a bit," she was saying now. "He's _really_ good!" she paused to steal a grape from his tray.

"Where was I?" Jool asked rhetorically. "Oh yes! So after I showered I stopped by the control room while they were sending a MALP through to a planet that has a toxic atmosphere."

"You want my peas?" Oz offered as she stole another grape.

"No thank, I already ate," Jool explained, stealing two more grapes from his tray. "Walter says hi by the way."

Oz nodded, moving his tray around so that the grapes were on the other side, further away from her, "When's Jon back?"

"Couple of hours," Jool said, glancing at her watch even as she snagged his jello cup.

"Hey!" Oz protested.

"Sorry," Jool mumbled around a mouthful of jello. "Did you want that?"

Not as much as he wanted a steak, Oz thought glumly, pushing the macaroni cheese around his plate with his fork. A nice, juicy, blue steak still dripping with blood... With ribs on the side.

Oz blinked. That was unusually bloodthirsty even for him. When was the next full moon? He asked Jool and she frowned as she struggled to remember.

"Uh..." she said as the door slid open. "Caroline! When's the full moon?"

"I thought I told you to stop hanging around here," Doctor Lam replied with a mock-severe look. "Monday I think... why?" Jool looked at Oz in reply and the confusion cleared from the CMO's face, "Werewolf, right! I thought you could control the change?"

"It helps to keep track," said Oz.

Truthfully, he was unsure whether he could control the change in his current weakened state. It wasn't something he'd been in a position to test before. He made a mental note to buy chains for his apartment before Sunday.

"What day is it?" he asked.

"Don't ask me!" Jool said, reaching over his lap to steal some more grapes. "I haven't seen the sun since we went off-world."

"Then why don't you go up to the surface now and leave me to check on my patient in peace?" Doctor Lam said sweetly. "I can make it an order if you like," she added when Jool just gaped at her.

"Alright, alright, I'm going." Jool said, getting up. "I know when I'm not wanted."

Adjusting her stethoscope as the door closed behind the red-haired slayer, Doctor Lam smiled at Oz. "How are you feeling?" she asked, placing the stethoscope on his chest.

Oz flinched. Cold!

**l**

Groaning at the persistent ache behind her temples, Faith rolled over in bed and tumbled off the edge onto the floor in a tangle of blankets. Muffled giggles came from above her and she opened her eyes to see Mallie standing by the open door.

"Ugh," Faith said, grimacing as she swallowed in a vain attempt to get rid of the severe case of cottonmouth she had going on. "Remind me not to drink with Jaffa again."

"Kay sent me to wake you," Mallie said, helping her up. "Breakfast is ready."

Breakfast? Faith turned green as her stomach did a backflip. "Lead on MacDuff," she managed to say through gritted teeth. Maybe breakfast would make her feel better, she thought hopefully as Mallie frowned, confused.

"My name is Malina," the blonde girl said, dragging the sound of her own name out as though she was speaking to the village idiot. "Did you hit your head on a branch last night?"

**l**

"General? Do you have a minute?"

"Not really," Landry said wryly, putting down his pen. "What is it Doctor Jackson?"

"It's about Merlin's weapon," Jackson said, frowning. "I can't help but feel we're missing something."

"Like what?" asked Landry.

"I don't know," Daniel admitted. "That's why I'd like to go back to Camelot. There's got to be more clues in Merlin's library. I barely had a chance to scrape the surface before we had to leave."

"You don't think we'll find the weapon on Castiana or Sahal," Landry realised, looking up at the troubled genius.

"When I asked Morgan le Fay which planet we should go to, just before the others stopped her, she started to say that the weapon was not something," explained Daniel. "What if she was trying to tell us that the weapon isn't on either of them?"

"Then what is?" Landry asked him.

"I don't know," Daniel sighed, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "We know that Arthur and his knights journeyed to Castiana, Sahal and Vagonbrei. Now, Vagonbrei was wiped out, presumably by Morgan when the villagers revealed her location to Arthur and his knights. I'm willing to bet that Castiana's toxic atmosphere and Sahal's complete lack of any kind of civilisation were caused by similar events, they're simply Arthur's old battlegrounds in _his_ quest for the Sangraal. But why would she say that I have my answers if I don't?"

"That's what I expect SG-1 to find out when you return to PX1-767," Landry told him.

"Ah," said Daniel. "Honestly sir, it's probably better if I go by myself. I'll work more quickly without any interruptions."

Landry regarded Daniel with a steady gaze for several long moments before he sat back in his chair. Okay," he gave his permission. "But I expect daily check-ins."

"Yes sir," Daniel promised, rushing out of the room to go pack.

**l**

Staring down at the gold and amber mushroom device that controlled the Stargate, Faith scratched her head. Beside her, Nya fidgeted impatiently. Faith really wished she wouldn't. It was distracting.

"Okay..." the Boston-born slayer said eventually. "That one then that one," she pointed to two of the symbols, a squiggly-looking line and two dots. "Can't remember, then that one," a falling egg-timer. "Can't remember, can't remember and the seventh one isn't on here."

"We don't need it," Kay said automatically as Nya sagged. "It symbolises the planet we're dialling from. This is Duran'."

"That's still a shit-load of possible combinations, Kay," said Faith.

"A hundred and seventeen," Mallie volunteered, flushing as they turned to look at her.

"Like I said... a shit-load."

Catching sight of Nya huddled into a small dark shaking ball on the steps leading up to the Stargate as she turned back to the mushroom thingy, Faith swore softly as guilt came crashing down on her shoulders. If it wasn't for her, Nya would still be with her kid.

Following her gaze, Kay placed a hand on Faith's arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as she walked past her, towards Nya. Slightly offended by the invasion of her personal space, yet oddly comforted, Faith watched the older woman as she soothed the distraught mother.

"Faith... we _are_ going to get Chaia back... aren't we?" Mallie asked in a small voice, her gaze also on the pair rocking back and forth on the stone stairs.

"Damn straight!" Faith said fiercely, punching the first two symbols. "I promised, didn't I?"

"Yes... but Nya says she saw a blue light in the distance. What if it was-"

"I know!" Faith snapped, wishing she'd just shut up. Hoping Nya was wrong. Because she really, _really_ didn't want to think about Praemas, or worse, _Adria,_ getting their hands on the kid. If only she'd paid more attention when she was playing spin-the-Stargate back on the floating globes planet.

"That is too many," Mallie said, interrupting Faith's self-inflicted guilt trip. "Faith, that is too many."

Looking down, Faith realised that she was still punching the top of the mushroom. Throwing herself away from the console with a snarl, she paced back and forth as the inner circle of the Stargate spun around, trying to dispel the aching craving for something to smoke.

The Stargate stopped spinning and everyone turned to look as, with a grating clunk, the damn thing refused to work. Sighing, Faith stalked back to the mushroom device to try again. This time she paid attention to the buttons she was hitting.

"So," she said to Mallie when she was done. "How you doing anyway? I mean, it's gotta be rough, seeing your ex like that."

"Praemas is not my anything!" Mallie said forcefully.

"No..." Faith said as the Stargate refused to accept that combination either. "He's just the evil minion of the evil spawn of evil hell-gods that your evil father tried to make you marry. Nuthin' to do with you."

"My father is not evil!" Mallie flared. "Just... misguided."

"Look, do ya wanna talk about it or not?" Faith snapped, at the end of her patience as the Stargate failed to work yet again.

"Not!" Mallie snapped back.

Biting back a bitchy retort, Faith concentrated on trying to dial Nya's home planet. How many attempts was that now? God she needed something to slay.

**l**

Take that Robotnik! And that! Argh! Get rings! No! No!

"Stupid hedgehog," Jon grumbled, tossing his Nintendo DS onto his desk and flexing his aching thumbs.

Well, that had been a spectacular waste of a day, he thought miserably. Barred from the base until mid-afternoon, only to discover that not only had his former team-mates returned ahead of schedule for a change but also that until Oz was cleared by Caroline, his team was off active duty, the new lead on Faith assigned to SG-8 to investigate instead.

In response he'd shut himself in his office, with the door closed, knowing that it was the last place anyone would think to look for him and not wanting to see the shock and pity in his former team's eyes when they saw him again. Not wanting to hear their awkward attempts to talk to him. And if a part of him knew that he was acting childishly, he silenced it by reminding himself that, technically, today was his third birthday. Even if he did have fifty-odd years worth of memories.

Standing, he stretched luxuriously. That song he'd heard in England had been right. Youth _was_ wasted on the young. If he hurried he could make it home in time for The Simpsons.

Cautiously opening his office door he peered out, making sure the coast was clear before he left his office, shrugging into the jacket of his BDU's. He was halfway to the elevators when he spotted Teal'c in the distance. Ducking down a different hallway, he took a detour only to wince as he heard his name shouted. Stopping, he waited for Andrew to catch him up.

"What?" he growled, moving again as soon as the young watcher reached him.

"I just wondered what you were doing over the weekend," Andrew said, looking crestfallen. "I thought maybe we could have a movie night. I brought my DVD collection..."

At the junction ahead, Carter appeared, talking to a dark-haired woman Jon had never seen before. As they turned down their hallway he acted quickly, opening the nearest door before Carter could spot him and bundling Andrew inside.

"Uh... Jon?" said Andrew. "I'm flattered..."

"What? No! Bad Andrew!" Jon whispered, his ear flattened to the stationary cupboard door as he listened for the sound of Carter passing by.

"Then why are we in here?" whined Andrew.

Jon shushed him as, on the other side of the door, Carter laughed.

"You shush!" Andrew said huffily.

"Shh!"

"Shhh!"

"Shh!"

"Shhh!"

"Sh-" cut off mid-shh as the door he was still leaning on opened, Jon tumbled to the floor. "Ow."

"I don't want to know," the Doc told him. "A4 paper?" she asked Andrew.

Scrambling to his feet, Jon tugged his BDU's back into something approaching neatness as a bright red Andrew wordlessly handed a pack over to her. Accepting it, the Doc fidgeted with the edges of the packet, staring down at it.

"So... um... I'm glad I finally found you," she said, looking up at him. "I need to talk to you. Claude Oswald's funeral is tomorrow. Can you give me a lift?"

"Sure," Jon said feeling vaguely sick.

"Okay," she said. "Okay."

He had a horrible suspicion that giving her a lift wasn't what she needed to talk to him about, Jon thought, watching her walk away. Thinking back, he realised that it had been about a month since London.

"Can I go now?" Andrew asked, oblivious.

"Yeah, sure," Jon said absently. He really needed a drink. "Wait, you're over twenty-one, right?"

**l**

This was pointless! She couldn't even remember how many combinations she'd tried, let alone which ones. She'd had to stop several times to let other people use the 'Gate and each time she'd forgotten where she was and had to start again from the beginning. Her stomach grumbled loudly, giving her the perfect excuse to stop and Faith stepped away from the console, glancing over the other side of the clearing where Mallie and Kay were showing Nya how to use Jaffa weapons.

"Hey guys!" she called. "Let's go. Lunch!"

Nobody argued, which was a good thing, and Mallie practically bounced across the clearing so they must have been just as hungry as her. Even Nya didn't look upset at the thought of leaving the Stargate to get something to eat. As they walked along the dirt road back to the small town, Kay hung back slightly, letting Nya and a happily babbling Mallie walk in front.

"I had an idea," she said quietly.

"Yeah?" said Faith, wondering if she wanted to hear it.

"If we wrote down all of the possible addresses, we could just cross each one off as we tried it," the shaggy-haired woman said. "That way we wouldn't keep trying the same ones."

Faith grimaced, "You noticed that, huh?"

Kay nodded, "I don't think the others did."

"Cool," Faith said. "So we'll pick up paper and a pen in town and then head back after lunch to try again."

"What's a pen?" Kay asked curiously. "And what _is_ Cam?"

Faith laughed, "Not what," she said. "Who. Cam is Cameron Mitchell," she explained as Kay looked at her. "The flyboy in charge of SG-1"

Kay nodded in understanding. SG-1 she understood, even if she still didn't know what Cameron Mitchell had to do with Faith slowing herself down to rescue a Chapp'ai from an ocean floor.

"Flyboy is a military rank?" she asked as Mallie and Nya disappeared around a bend in the road.

"Faith!" Mallie's panicked shout startled both slayers. Exchanging worried glances, they ran in the direction of the others.

Imagining the worst, Faith was relieved to see that both of them were okay. What's more, there was no-one else in sight as they stared off into the distance.

"What?" she asked grouchily, angry with them for scaring her.

"By the Gods..." Kay whispered.

Glancing at her, Faith realised that she had the same look of horrified anticipation as Mallie and Nya as she too gazed into the distance. Looking in that direction for the first time, Faith's heart sank even as a predatory grin exposed her white teeth.

Above the town of Duran, smoke rose, thick and black, from several places. Now that she listened, Faith could hear the distant sound of fighting on the air.

"What are we waiting for?" she said, flicking the safety off her P-90.

**l**

He was pathetic, Jon decided. He was fifty-six years old for crying out loud. Or three. Or eighteen. It really depended on how you looked at it. Anyway, he felt old. Old enough to be able to buy alcohol without having to rely on a kid young enough to be his son to get it for him! It wasn't even like Andrew could hold his liquor. He was currently rambling on about magic and how it felt to be one with the force, blissfully unaware that he was in imminent danger of falling off Jon's kitchen stool.

"Wait..." Jon said, holding up a hand and frowning as he tried to unravel Andrew's point. "You can do magic? Like... actual Willow-type magic?"

Okay, maybe he was a bit drunk too, he conceded, reaching for a fresh Heineken. But at least he wasn't as bad as Andrew. And he had an excuse. If the anniversary of the day you got kidnapped, cloned and stuck in the body of a teenager wasn't an excuse to drink, he didn't know what was. Oh yeah, Andrew was talking about magic.

"...Nowhere as good as Willow but she says I'm her second-best pupil," slurred Andrew. "It's not fair... Dawn's good at everything... She doesn't even _try_."

"So what can you do?" Jon asked, hoping to see something cool.

"I used to be really good at summoning demons, but that was when I was evil," Andrew said mournfully and Jon did a double take at the young member of his team. Evil? "Now I can summon air and I'm working on floating pencils." Air? Floating pencils? So much for something cool.

"Oh!" Andrew exclaimed, sitting upright and brightening. The sudden movement tipped him too far backwards and he hurriedly righted himself as two legs of the stool left the ground. "I had a great idea for adapting a scrying spell to show us the last address dialled on a Stargate."

"So you can't turn people into frogs?" Jon asked, disappointed.

"No. It would be cool though," said Andrew, drinking his Heineken.

"Can Willow?"

"Yeah, but she won't," Andrew sighed. "Frog fear. She does rats instead."

Jon snickered, reaching for his beer to cover it. Drinking, he accidentally caught Andrew's eye and the Californian giggled helplessly. Heineken spurted from Jon's nose and within seconds they were laughing until their ribs ached.

**l**

The light might be fading from the sky but the battle for Duran raged on, the street lit by weapons fire. Wherever the melee was thickest, Faith danced, Mallie, Kay and Nya at her back. Her lethal body moved with the grace of a ballerina as she fought with zats and her fists, seeking to incapacitate her opponents rather than kill them.

She'd long since abandoned the P-90, learning that the distance afforded by a gun didn't lessen the reality of killing. But she didn't dwell. She couldn't afford to right now as she dodged another bolt of white light.

Suddenly the mood of the battlefield changed as the Ori soldiers began pulling back to the centre of the town. Harrying them along the way, Faith soon realised why. They were using the rings in the town square to retreat. Calling the others off, Faith turned away from the massacre that was developing as the Jaffa fought the dwindling number of troops clustered around the rings.

"Where are we going?" Mallie asked, still impossibly bouncy. "The fight is back there."

"That's not a fight, it's revenge." Faith said grimly. "The Ori won't let it go unpunished."

"But... we won," said Nya.

"There's no way it's that easy," Faith told her, shaking her head. "We won some breathing space, that's all."

"So what do we do?" asked Kay.

"Well..." Faith said, considering the question. "I'm hungry."

**l**

**A/N**

Phew! No cliff-hanger... ;)

P.S. Points to the first person to correctly guess where Chaia is.


	14. Outsiders: Part One

**Author's Note**

Sorry about the long wait for an update. I was wrestling with this for ages and took a quick break to write a drabble that's been kicking around my head for about a year only to find that once I'd finished the first scene more spilled out. So now I'm writing two stories. :S I finally managed to wrestle the muse into writing the single scene required to post half of what I had initially planned to post as this chapter. Hopefully that'll kick-start her into writing a few more SiS scenes and you won't have to wait too long for the other half. I wouldn't bank on it though... For the first time in years, I'm actually dating someone and I'm finding that snuggling time eats into writing time. Also, I have until the end of June to get all of my college work finished, organised and submitted.

The fact that no-one correctly guessed the planet which Chaia and Adria are on is probably my fault. I hadn't watched the relevant episodes before I wrote the scene and I got the clue's gender wrong (Dreylock is female, not male). Sorry everyone. I've since corrected the scene and, in the interest of fairness, I'm reopening the competition. There are more clues below. Research is cheating. :P

On an interesting note, this chapter was mainly written to the sound of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

**Outsiders - Part One**

Faith sat alone in the night upon the rooftop of The Broken Bashaak, looking down at the square below as she struggled to find the inner calm that Giles had always told her was the root of a slayer's power. She'd always thought of it as a load of hooey before – how could a slayer's strength come from peace when her entire existence was bound up in fighting the forces of darkness? But then she'd never felt so in need of the still small space within, as the G-man liked to call it.

She'd killed again.

Slayers were created to protect humanity and she'd killed again.

Shifting uncomfortably on the rough wooden tiles of the roof, Faith tried once again to clear her mind and banish the faces the men she'd shot. She had no desire to go down the spiralling dark path that had opened up beneath her the first time she'd killed someone and if she had to stare at her bellybutton in order to avoid it then she would.

The other slayers had killed too and hadn't cared. Mallie, sweet Mallie, had actually wanted to join in the slaughter of the escaping troops. What had she done to them? What was she doing?

A slight scraping sound came from behind her and she stiffened, "Who's there?"

"It's me," Kay whispered back, clambering over the rooftop to join her.

Was it that late already? It seemed like only a few hours since she had taken Mallie's place for the middle watch of the night. Reluctant to return to her solitary room, yet another reminder of those who'd died in the battle, Faith lingered on the rooftop.

"How's Nya?" she asked quietly, knowing that the older slayer had taken the devastated mother under her wing.

"Asleep," Kay sighed, looking at the horizon. "I looked in on her before I came up. She was upset earlier. It's the first time she's killed anyone. You might want to talk to her about it tomorrow."

Faith flinched, avoiding Kay's gaze. Was it that obvious that she was a murderer? Try as she might, all she could think of to say to Nya was sorry. Sorry she'd taken her off her planet and left her kid behind. Sorry she couldn't remember the 'Gate address to take her back like she'd promised. Sorry she'd brought her here and put her in the position where she had to kill or be killed. Sorry just didn't seem to cover it somehow.

"Faith? Are you alright?"

"Five by five," Faith responded, staring at a dark stain in the square below.

"You seem troubled," Kay said, looking at her with a worried expression.

"You get dreams of the Priors, right?" Faith asked her unexpectedly. "You ever get any about their army?"

"No," said Kay. She frowned as Faith seemed to draw further in on herself. "Is that significant?"

"Slayers aren't supposed to kill," Faith told her. "Not humans anyway. Best I can figure, The Powers That Wreck Lives are making an exception for the Priors... or they're not human any more. But their soldiers are. Even if they do believe a bunch of evil ascended Ancients are Gods."

Powers That Wreck Lives? Presumably Faith meant the other Ancients she had spoken of back at the ruined castle. Why she couldn't just say what she meant was beyond Kay.

"That's ridiculous," Kay said. "There wasn't a Prior yesterday. What were we supposed to do? Just sit back and watch as they invaded?" Faith didn't answer and Kay continued, trying a different tactic, "When you were fighting the First Evil in Sunnydale, did you dream of its army?"

"No. But I don't dream," Faith admitted quietly.

"Ever?" Kay asked, surprised.

"Not slayer dreams," said Faith. "Except once."

"What did you see?" Kay was curious enough to allow herself to be sidetracked.

"You," Faith said, surprising the other woman. "And Mallie, and Nya and a whole bunch of other girls."

"Other slayers?" Kay asked. "How many?"

"I'm not sure," Faith said, rubbing her eyes with one hand and a sigh. "It was kinda a blur."

Having received many slayer dreams, Kay could sympathise. They weren't the easiest things to interpret. Despite hearing stories of the Priors and the invading army, she hadn't understood the meaning of hers until she had met Faith.

"That's why you're here," she said.

"Yeah," said Faith. "Got straight on my bike and didn't stop 'til I was on a different planet. Even then I kept running. Got the feelin' it was urgent, y'know?"

"Bike? Is that a kind of Tau'ri ship?" Kay asked. "What happened to it?"

Faith chuckled, the sound low and pleasant, "Nah, a bike's strictly ground transport. It's got two wheels and an engine that makes it go really fast. Mine's a Ducati," she said proudly, grinning at Kay's confusion. "That means it's wicked quick."

"Then how did it take you to a different planet?" asked Kay, still confused.

"I rode it to the SGC and forced one of the people who worked there to let me through the 'Gate," Faith explained.

"That's how you found out about the Stargate program," Kay said, marvelling at the amount of detail in Faith's dream.

"Not exactly," said Faith. "There was a 'Gate in my dream but I'd only left the SGC that morning."

"Then how did you learn the secret?" Kay asked.

Before Faith could answer, there was an electronic hum from the square below and the ring platform there activated. Kay reacted quickly, grabbing the large bell resting on the roof in front of them and shaking it over her head so that its strident peals rang around the sleeping town as Faith fired a zat'nik'tel into the air.

The Ori soldiers transported into the square reacted aggressively to the alarm, firing up at the sound even as they moved off the ring platform, leaving the rings clear to rise up into their air once more. Faith fired into their midst as more soldiers arrived and Kay noticed that she was shooting to stun. Dropping the bell as she was hit by one of the volley of shots, Kay shuddered and sagged. Too late, she thought triumphantly. The alarm had been taken up in various places around the town and Jaffa were beginning to appear in the square.

"You okay?" Faith asked.

"Five by five," Kay threw the other slayer's earlier words back at her through gritted teeth, reaching for her own zat'nik'tel with fingers that were numb.

**l**

Somewhere on the Northern end of the continent known as America, on the planet called, rather unimaginatively, Earth, a dark saturnine figure hunched over a lab table, working on something that looked remarkably like a chunky diving watch. Using some of the more inventive Tau'ri curses he had learned during his stay on their planet, Ba'al swore quietly to himself as he hurriedly worked.

Typically, the Original had left him with little time to prepare for his visit. For all his clone knew, he could already be here. Sighing with relief as he finished work, he strapped the shielding device into place on his wrist and admired it for a moment. Not only was it waterproof up to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet, guaranteed to shield the locator chip imbedded in his heart but the device also told the time. In twenty different countries.

He still had preparations to make for the Original's visit, Ba'al reminded himself, sliding off his stool. He switched the lights off in his lab as he left the room. He had an NID agent to catch.

**l**

"Morning sunshine," Jon said cheerfully as Andrew stumbled into his kitchen, bleary-eyed and holding his head with one hand. "Drink that, then that, then that," he instructed, pointing to a large glass of water, a smaller one of fizzing painkillers and a steaming mug of coffee that stood waiting for the young watcher on the breakfast bar.

Gingerly, Andrew sat down, reaching for the water with a hand that trembled. Watching him out of the corner of his eye, Jon waited until he had almost finished the glass before he placed a fried breakfast in front of him. Looking at the plate, the already pale Andrew turned a sickly shade of green and bolted from the room.

Grinning, Jon tucked into his own breakfast as he waited for the other man to return. Perfect timing, he congratulated himself. He might not have had a hangover for the past three years but he hadn't forgotten the old remedies.

"Feel better?" he asked as Andrew came back, looking wobbly.

"I hate you," Andrew mumbled, pinching his nose and drinking the paracetamol solution in one. "Why are we up so early?"

"Briefing at oh-nine-hundred, remember? What we could have done to stop Oz getting fleas..."

"Urgh," Andrew said, grimacing at both the reminder and the coffee. "Sugar?"

Jon passed it over and they lapsed into silence as he ate his breakfast and Andrew drank his coffee. Jon had almost finished his plate when Andrew looked up, frowning.

"Why are you wearing a tie?" he asked. "Should I dress up too? But I've only got what I'm wearing. Unless... can we stop at my apartment?"

Glancing away from his puppy-dog eyes, Jon looked at his watch and grimaced, "No time," he said. "I'm only wearing the monkey suit because I'm giving the Doc a ride to Oswald's funeral."

"Oh yeah," remembered Andrew. "Why does she want to go to it anyway? Hello...! Morbid much?"

Jon shrugged, downing the rest of his coffee in an attempt to avoid the issue. It worked.

"What am I going to wear?" Andrew fretted.

Looking at the dejected man sitting at his breakfast counter, Jon fought back a grin. While Andrew's linen slacks and shirt combo might have been immaculate yesterday, they were hopelessly crumpled now.

"You can borrow something of mine," he offered. "We're about the same size."

Andrew just stared at the younger and much taller man standing opposite him in disbelief.

**l**

Scanning the mess as she stepped away from the serving area, Vala sighed. She hated to eat on her own but with Daniel off-world reading books and Sam and Mitchell not due in until their briefing at ten, it looked like she'd have to. The mess was crowded though and she couldn't see a single spare seat. She sighed again. She wouldn't have this problem if SG-1 were here. Where was Muscles when you needed him?

"You can sit here if you like," a voice said from behind her and Vala turned to see a yellow-eyed woman sitting alone at one of the unpopular tables for two, an open folder above her tray.

"Thanks," Vala said gratefully, sliding into the spare seat as the woman moved the folder, closing it and sliding it under her tray. "Vala Mal Doran," she introduced herself, sticking her hand out in the Tau'ri custom.

"Julie Wilson," she shook Vala's hand with a firm grip and a friendly smile. "Call me Jool."

"Julie Wilson?" Vala said excitedly, looking at the young woman in a plain black dress, her vivid red hair pulled back into a sleek roll along the back of her head, with fresh eyes. "The doctor on SG-13?"

"The one and only," Jool admitted wryly.

"Is it true there's a werewolf on your team?"

**l**

"Sorry I'm late," Jool apologised, hurrying into the briefing room. "I got talking to someone in the mess and lost track of the time. Where were you?"

"I was just telling General Landry that we've moved Oz to the main infirmary," Caroline said as Jool sat down at the table beside her, pulling a notepad and pen out of her bag. "He's not recovering as quickly as the other infected personnel and I'd like to keep a closer eye on him."

"We did inject him with silver," Jool pointed out. "It'll take his system some time to recover."

"How much time?" General Landry asked.

"Well, the werewolves in the original study back in the fifties, the ones that survived, were fully recovered after a full moon."

"When is that?" asked Landry.

"Three days time," Jool told him with a glance at Andrew as he sat slumped in a chair, his hands wrapped around a cup of coffee, to see if he wanted to field the question. One glimpse of his pale face and haggard eyes was enough to tell her that he didn't. "Werewolves typically transform the day before and after as well."

"And he'll just be fine after that?" Caroline asked dubiously.

"Should be," Jool said with a bright smile. Of course, none of the previous tests had been performed on a werewolf who could control the transformation...

"Alright then people," Landry said, preparing to stand. "As soon as Mr Osbourne is fit for duty, SG-13 is cleared for active duty."

"What about Altar Conclavum?" Jool asked before she could stop herself.

Halfway out of his chair, General Landry looked annoyed by the question, "What about it?"

"I understand that it lit up red when Morgan le Fay revealed the locations of Castiana and Sahal," Jool said, looking up at the General as he stood at the end of the table. Across the table, Andrew gaped at her. "And that not only was she surprised by that but she also said that it had nothing to do with Merlin's weapon..."

"Colonel Carter believes that it may have something to do with the destruction of the DHD on that planet," Landry explained.

"But we don't have a DHD," Jool pointed out, glaring at Jon as she felt a kick under the table. "Shouldn't Earth have been red too? What if, somehow, Faith's on that planet?"

Sitting back down heavily, Landry sighed. "Colonel Mitchell's been saying the same thing," he said. "Truth is, as yet we haven't had the time to even try dialling PB2-908."

"What about now?" Jon asked.

"Now?" repeated Landry.

"Yeah," Jon said. "Nobody's using the 'Gate."

It was true, Hank reflected. And he had time to spare before his debrief with SG-1, he realised, looking at his watch. It would be good to know if they could get a lock or not before then.

"Good point," he said to the young Captain, rising from his seat once more.

They all followed him down to the control room, even Caroline, waiting patiently while the leftover MALP from yesterday was given a final check just in case and Walter started the dialling process.

"What the hell was that?" Jon whispered furiously to the Doc when everyone was distracted by the spinning Stargate.

"What?" she whispered back, frowning.

"Pushing a General like that," Jon replied, still whispering. "I'm your Commanding Officer. Next time you get the urge to do something like that, run it by me first. How did you even hear about P-whatever?"

"I _live_ here," Jool whispered, furious. "And what if Faith _is_ on the planet?"

"What if she isn't?" Jon shot back.

"Chevron seven is locked," announced Walter, his surprise evident in his voice as he looked up at General Landry.

"Send the MALP through," the General ordered.

Using the general shuffle to get a better view of the machine rolling up the ramp as an excuse to move away from Jon, Jool sandwiched herself between Caroline and Andrew, ignoring their glances. The surface of the wormhole rippled as the MALP disappeared.

"Receiving MALP telemetry," Walter informed them and Jool crossed her fingers.

"Onscreen," General Landry told him.

Several screens flickered as they switched to the video feed from the distant MALP, displaying the image of a stone courtyard for all to see. At the back of the group, Jon frowned, moving closer to the monitor nearest him. He knew that courtyard.

"_Someone's_ living there," said Caroline as the camera slowly panned across.

"But where are they?" the Doc said, staring up at a monitor.

"That fireplace looks pretty old to me," Jon pointed out. "I'm guessing whoever moved the 'Gate is long gone." He kept his face as bland as possible as Walter, Hank and the Doc all turned to look at him with expressions that ranged from curious to anguished, mentally kicking himself for the slip. "Permission to check it out."

"Keep looking," Landry told Walter. "Need I remind you Captain, that your team is a man down and that this base is still recovering from your last mission?"

"You said yourself that you don't have the time to check it out, sir," Jon pointed out. "Besides it's a deserted planet... how much trouble can we get into?"

Maybe he shouldn't have said that, thought Jon as Hank frowned, looking thoughtful. You'd have thought he'd have learned by now that saying stuff like that only jinxed missions.

"What harm can a few more days do if they have moved on?" Hank asked. "Without a DHD, there's no way of telling what address they 'Gated to."

Jon grinned as a drunken memory stirred, "Actually sir," he said. "Andrew had an idea about that."

"I did?" Andrew asked, looking confused.

"He thinks he can use his mojo to show the last address a 'Gate dialled," explained Jon.

"I did!" Andrew said excitedly. "I mean, I do!"

"Mojo?" Landry asked, frowning.

"Yeah, you know, magic," Jon told him, wiggling his fingers like a third-rate magician.

"You can do magic?" Hank asked Andrew incredulously.

Andrew nodded proudly, sticking his chest out, "Willow says I'm her second-best pupil."

"In that case you have a go," Hank told them.

"Now?" Andrew squeaked.

"Is there a problem?" General Landry asked.

"Well, yeah!" Andrew said. "I haven't got any orris root or snake blood and there isn't a magic shop in Colorado Springs. I'll have to drive to Denver."

"Snake blood?" Jon asked, grossed out.

"I don't want to know," General Landry said. "Walter, is there a slot free in four hours?"

"No sir, but there is one at fourteen oh five," the 'Gate technician told him.

"Five past two," the Doc told Andrew as he looked confused.

"Oh," Andrew said, the confusion clearing. "Oh!"

Moving closer to the Doc as Andrew rushed past him, Jon ignored her glare, focussing on the monitors as General Landry also left the room.

"Uh..." Walter said, still manipulating the MALP. "Should I keep going?"

"Shut it off," Jon told him and turned to the Doc. "We'd better get going if we want to make Oswald's funeral."

Peachy, he thought as she threw a fulminating glare at him before silently walking out of the control room. This was going to be fun. Not.

**l**

Curled up on the floor by one of the large slanting windows, Chaia stared out at the blue sky. She didn't like this place. The strange stone tents made her feel trapped and everyone was too scared of the bad lady to talk to her. She wanted her mother. The bad lady had promised that Chaia would see her again, but she wouldn't tell her when.

She glanced across the room. The bad lady had been very quiet since she yelled at all the people to get out. She was sat at the head of the long table, her eyes closed and her hands flat on the surface in front of her. Chaia wondered if she was asleep.

As quietly as possible, she stood up and began to sneak towards the large doors. Closer and closer she crept until they were within reach and she slowly stretched out a hand to one of the handles.

"You won't get past the guards."

Chaia jumped back as if she had been burned as the bad lady spoke and then timidly turned around to face her. She was still sitting at the table with her eyes shut. Curious, Chaia approached her.

"What you doing?" she asked.

"Meditating," the bad lady replied calmly, keeping her eyes closed.

"Why?"

"So that I may speak with my fathers," said the bad lady.

"Why?"

The bad lady's eyes flew open and they were burning again. Afraid, Chaia stumbled backwards.

"Cease questioning me," the bad lady snapped. Chaia stared silently at her and she smiled, the flames fading from her eyes. "Good," she said, closing her eyes again.

Miserably, Chaia returned to her seat by the window.

**l**

They weren't even halfway there before Jon caved to the pressure of the prickly silence emanating from the passenger seat.

"Okay," he said, turning the radio down. "You were right and I was wrong."

Silence.

"You gonna keep up the silent treatment all day?" Jon asked, glancing at her as she sat staring out of the passenger window, her mouth set in an obstinate line. "'Cause that's not gonna work off-world."

Silence.

"Thought you wanted to talk to me."

Silence.

"Oh for cryin' out loud!" Jon exclaimed. "I'm sorry, okay!"

"You're an arse," the Doc snorted.

"There!" Jon said, grinning at her. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He returned his attention to the road ahead as she smiled slightly. "Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" As if he couldn't guess.

Silence. Jon glanced at her. She was sat with her head down, plucking at the skirt of her dress with one white hand.

"Hey," he said, covering her hand with his own. "It's okay. We can sort things out..."

"I'm not pregnant," Jool told him coldly, removing her hand from under his. "And I wouldn't have an abortion if I was."

Abortion? Who said anything about abortion? Women! He'd never understand them. What was he supposed to say to that?

"I didn't mean-"

"What the bloody hell is _that_?" the Doc exclaimed, sitting up and staring out of his side window.

Turning his head just in time to see the alien space ship disappear behind the trees that grew thickly along the side of the road, leaving a thick line of smoke hanging in the sky, Jon swore.

"Al'kesh," he said. "And F-16's," he added, recognising the sleek fighter jets that followed the damaged ship.

"Should I call the General?" the Doc asked, scrabbling in her bag and pulling out her phone.

"He already knows," Jon said grimly, turning the car down a road that led in the direction of the crash site as the sound of the impact reached them.

They were the first to arrive at the scene, not including the circling F-16's, and Jon pulled his car up a safe distance from the crashed Al'kesh. Getting out, he eyed the Goa'uld vessel with misgivings.

"Stay with me," he ordered the Doc, flipping the safety off his handgun.

"You brought a _gun_ to a _funeral_?" she asked, staring at the weapon in horrified shock.

"Yeah," Jon said, moving forward to take point. "Didn't you?"

They had almost reached the spaceship when the Al'kesh door opened and a familiar figure staggered out, blood dripping from his forehead.

"Aw, crap." Jon said. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you now."

Straightening, the dark man looked Jon up and down, an amused smirk quirking his mouth, "Because, _Captain_, I doubt very much that you have the clearance to be here, let alone go so far as to actually shoot me," he straightened his cuffs, smiling at the Doc. "And I rather think that your, _lovely_, companion should be spared such a gruesome sight."

"Don't look at me for help," Jool told him. "I say slay the Goa'uld – He is a Goa'uld, right?" Jon nodded and she shrugged nonchalantly. "General Landry can only be mad for so long."

His eyebrows climbing his forehead, Ba'al found himself forced to change his initial assessment of the couple. But surely they were too young to be employed at the SGC? The Captain looked as though he should still be in America's mandatory schooling program and there were no medals pinned to his dress uniform while the female couldn't have been much older than her escort, although she did look remarkably well-polished with her plain black dress and elegant manner of dressing her hair. She looked entirely too beautiful to be so bloodthirsty... and her accent. It wasn't one he'd heard before, although doubtless some of the clones who'd spent time on Earth would recognise it.

"Ah," he said to them. "Then, perhaps, the fact that back-up has arrived might dissuade you from my... imminent demise?"

Several vehicles were, in fact bumping over the field towards them. Scowling at them, Jon turned back to Ba'al.

"You got lucky," he warned the System Lord before stomping over to greet the men pouring out of vehicles.

"I suppose I'd better see to that cut," Jool sighed.

"You?" the Goa'uld said with surprised contempt.

Jool stiffened, "Yes, _me_!" she snapped. "And don't even think of trying anything funny."

"I find nothing humorous in this situation," the Goa'uld said huffily as he followed her over to the ambulance. "Plenty of the ridiculous, I assure you."

"On second thought... do," Jool told him, snatching a med-kit from one of the paramedics running towards them with a group of six soldiers.

"Do what?" asked the Goa'uld stiffly.

Jool snorted, "Oh, I don't know," she said, her eyes dancing with laughter. "One?"

"I don't understand," the Goa'uld said through gritted teeth.

"Get used to it," Jon told him, popping back up as they reached the ambulance. "Major Caffey's men are securing the area and searching the ship," he said to Jool.

"Is it safe?" Jool asked, opening the medkit.

The Goa'uld chuckled, "Worried I might have rigged it to explode?"

"Well now I am," Jon said.

"Ow!" Ba'al's eyes flashed as the Doc started cleaning the blood from his forehead.

"Actually I was more concerned that your bad flying might have damaged Earth's newest ship," the Doc said sweetly. "Sorry, did that hurt?"

Score one for the Doc! Jon snickered.

"That was some pretty bad piloting," he agreed with her. "Heck, my Grandfather can fly better than that and he's dead."

Trying not to laugh as Jon continued to heckle the Goa'uld about his lack of flying ability, Jool concentrated on making sure the alien was uninjured after his crash. Predictably, the Goa'uld snapped back and the resulting verbal squabble between the two had just degenerated to the point where Jool was going to intervene when Jon stiffened, looking behind the open doors of the ambulance at something she couldn't see.

"I'm gonna check the perimeter," he said, disappearing before she had a chance to say anything.

"It looks as though it's just you and me, my dear," the Goa'uld said suavely.

"Oh, please!" said Jool, pressing the single steristrip required down on his minor head wound with a smidgen more force than was necessary and rolling her eyes.

"Ouch!" he protested, his eyes flashing once more.

Turning away to pack up her torture kit, the Tau'ri woman missed the arrival of five people outside the ambulance doors but Ba'al did not. Straightening, he smiled amiably at the newcomers, "Ah, at last... The welcoming committee."

"Oh, what am I?" the strange Tau'ri woman said rhetorically. "Chopped liver?"

Why would anyone want to chop a liver? Unless it was to gain information, thought Ba'al.

"You," he said, more to SG-1 than her. "Wanted to shoot me."

"No," she contradicted. "_Jon_ wanted to shoot you, _I_ just said he should."

Who the hell was she? Sam wondered, staring at the mouthy Englishwoman dressed in Chanel. What the hell was she doing on a secure crash site? Why was she sitting in the ambulance with Ba'al? She was just opening her mouth to ask all of these questions and more when Cam spoke.

"Thanks, Doc," he said to the redhead. "We'll take him from here."

Her name wasn't Doc, Jool thought furiously as SG-1 led the Goa'uld away. Why did everyone keep calling her that!

**l**

Okay, starting the fight on a roof had been a bad idea, Faith conceded, firing at the soldiers running up the stairs towards her. They fell, tumbling down the stairs and into the men coming up behind them. Running down the stairs, Kay at her back, Faith arrived in the kitchen of The Broken Bashaak.

A fresh group of soldiers arrived in the door to the bar as she skirted the groaning pile at the base of the stairs and she fired at them as Kay snatched up a large copper pot and threw it at them. The pot hit the leader, a man with dark floppy hair and a large nose, with a clong and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head before he fell. Faith took out three of the rest before they had time to leap back behind the safety of the walls, returning fire through the doorway.

That was the problem with fanatics, Faith thought as she and Kay dived for cover behind a counter, they kept on coming. Sheer numbers had forced the resisting Jaffa, and Mallie and Nya, out of the square and into the streets. Catching sight of the closed door to the back yard, Faith shrugged. They were headed in that direction anyway.

"Cover me," she said.

"With what?" Kay asked as Faith surged to her feet. Ah.

Laying down a heavy barrage of fire that successfully dissuaded the Ori soldiers from even attempting to return fire, Kay glanced over her shoulder as Faith ripped the backdoor from its hinges, hurling it at a soldier who had just managed to struggle free of the downed group by the stairs and stand. Keeping up the rapid rate of fire until she was outside, Kay ran, following Faith to the nearby sounds of battle.

Behind them, in the kitchen of The Broken Bashaak, the counter they had been sheltering behind was blown apart by Ori staff weapons to reveal... nothing. One of the soldiers, nudged into the shattered room by another, scratched his head as he noticed the door standing against one wall.

With a protesting creak, the door slowly toppled to the floor, revealing an unfortunate soldier pressed into the rough plaster of the wall. Meeting the first soldier's eyes with an agonised look, the unlucky man fell forwards, landing face-first on top of the door.

"Owww," he croaked and happily passed out.

**l**

"I don't get it," Cam said, his arms crossed as he stared at the picture of Ba'al in his cell. "We know Ba'al has been to Earth before without being detected."

"Presumably by cloaked cargo ship or by using Asgard beaming technology from high orbit," rumbled Teal'c.

"Exactly," said Cam. "So why would he fly an Al'kesh directly to Stargate Command?"

"Perhaps he was planning to attack," Vala suggested.

"Nah. Even Ba'al's not that crazy."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Vala said with a dry chuckle.

"Well this is interesting," Sam said from her position across the room, staring at a screen in front of her. "There's a signal coming from inside the room. He must have implanted himself with a locator beacon."

"No doubt he's expecting his people to beam him out at some point," said Vala.

"Better not hold his breath," Cam scoffed.

"Why not?" Vala asked.

"Well, after the Stargate was stolen two years ago, we installed jamming devices to prevent anyone from locking onto a signal within the base," Sam explained to her. Behind her, General Landry entered the room, looking grumpier than usual.

"General," Cam greeted him before he could say anything. "Has he said anything?"

"Only that won't he talk to anybody but SG-13," Landry scowled. "Frankly I'm inclined to let him rot."

"Yep, he's planning something."

"SG-13?"

"How does he know about SG-13?"

"Indeed?"

"I want you in the observation room," Landry told them. "Fortunately they haven't left for PB2-908 yet."

"Yes sir," said Cam. SG-13? What did Ba'al want with them?

**l**

"Us? Why us?" asked Jool with a frown after General Landry told them that Ba'al was refusing to talk to anyone else. "Is it because Jon threatened to shoot him?"

Suppressing a chuckle at the reminder, Hank pasted a severe look on his face as he replied, "He asked for SG-13 specifically, not you personally."

"There's no way Oz's well enough for that," Doctor Wilson told him. "And Andrew's in Denver."

A metallic hum filled the air and with a flash of light, Andrew appeared in the corner of the room, his hand outstretched as he faced the wall. "Hey!" he said, turning around. "I didn't get my change."

Sobering as he caught sight of their serious faces, Andrew stared back at them with wide eyes. "What did I miss?" he asked.

Jon snorted, where did he begin! "It's a long story."

"Goa'uld System Lord crashed on the doorstep to talk to us," the Doc said.

"Apparently not that long," said Hank, his eyes twinkling with laughter.

"Oh," Andrew said, dropping down into an empty chair and placing the paper bag he carried on the tabletop. "That's bad."

"Ya think?" Jon said sarcastically, glad someone else got it despite his prickly attitude. Yeah, he'd seen Ba'al on CNN last year, and had nightmares for months afterwards, but he'd figured the SGC had stopped him after the CEO of Hammel Technologies had dropped out of sight and the company had folded. How did he know about SG-13? More importantly, _what_ did he know about them?

"Can I change first?" Andrew asked plaintively.

"Good idea," Jon said, eyeing the rolled up cuffs of the shirt he'd leant the young watcher with fresh eyes. He knew the pants were just as bad, if not worse. "Badges and BDU's kids," he ordered.

Ba'al wanted SG-13? He'd give him SG13!

**l**

The owner of a certain magic shop in Denver closed his jaw with an audible snap. What in the hell dimensions did someone with that much power want with snake blood and orris root? Did he really want to know? Placing the man's change in a safe place in case he ever came back for it, the shopkeeper shook his head disbelievingly. It was always the ones you didn't expect.

**l**

In the observation room attached to Ba'al's cell, bets were being laid as to whether or not the Goa'uld would talk. While Vala and Cam finalised the details, Sam moved forward to join Teal'c as the dark Jaffa stood staring down at the system Lord lounging in a chair at the table with his back to them.

"What do you think?" she asked him quietly. "Will he talk?"

"Of that there is no doubt," Teal'c said, never taking his eyes off the dark figure below. "Whether he will say anything of import is another matter."

"Where are they?" Vala sighed, joining them in front of the two-way mirror. "I thought General Landry said they hadn't left yet."

"I believe Dungeon Master Andrew had to leave the base in order to make preparations for their mission," Teal'c informed her solemnly. He raised an eyebrow as his team-mates stared at him. "Is that not Andrew Wells' correct title?"

"Uh..." Colonel Mitchell said scratching the back of his neck and exchanging a glance with Colonel Carter as Vala Mal Doran looked on, confused. "I don't know how to tell you this, big guy..."

"No," Colonel Carter told him.

"Then he did not in truth lead a party of five against the vile demon Queen, Lolth, the night before the battle for Sunnydale?"

"No," said Colonel Mitchell.

"A pity," Teal'c said, turning back to the room below. "It was an honourable victory."

"Now wait a minute," Colonel Carter objected. "Dungeons and Dragons is a strategy game. If this Dungeon Master says he led five people against Lolth and won, then he did."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Colonel Mitchell said, looking at Colonel Carter. "You're a D&Der?"

Colonel Carter blushed and Teal'c began to find it hard to conceal his amusement. Fortunately for both of them, SG-13 chose that particular moment to arrive. Below, Ba'al straightened in his seat as the man they had just been discussing entered the room, looking incredibly nervous.

"Ah, SG-13," Ba'al welcomed him with a smile. "It is an honour to meet... _You_!" he spat the last word of his greeting out in a metallic tone of disgust as two more people followed Andrew Wells into the room.

"Is that...?" Colonel Carter said in disbelief, stepping so close to the glass that she almost touched it.

"Who?" Colonel Mitchell asked quickly.

"I believe it is," Teal'c told his blonde team-mate.

"Who?" repeated Colonel Mitchell.

Teal'c ignored him, instead exchanging a significant look with Colonel Carter, silently promising that they would speak of this later, before returning his attention to the room below.

"Yeah, _us_," O'Neill's clone was saying to Ba'al. "We've been ordered to listen to you so you might wanna make it snappy. I heard the mess is serving pizza for lunch," he added to Andrew Wells.

"What, no introductions?" Ba'al said smoothly, obviously striving to regain control of the conversation as Andrew Wells brightened. "I'm hurt."

"That's not snappy," Doctor Wilson told him, her arms folded across the chest of her BDU's as she leaned against the wall facing them. She looked at the two men on her team. "Did that sound snappy to you two?"

"No," Andrew Wells replied.

"Let me make this clear, 'cause I don't think you're getting us," O'Neill's clone said, resting his hands on the table to lean in close to Ba'al. If it had been anyone else attempting such a move, Teal'c might have been concerned for their safety. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"Very well," Ba'al said, fussing with his robes as he leaned back in his seat. "I shall... put my cards upon the table, as I believe the saying goes. It's the clones. They want to kill me."

"Ah for crying out loud!" O'Neill's clone exclaimed, pushing himself away from the table. "Clones? Really? I mean... c'mon! As if one of you wasn't bad enough."

"Okay..." Doctor Wilson said, moving away from the wall as the young clone began to pace the room, muttering under his breath and casting dark glances at Ba'al. "Why should we help you?"

"Because I can help you," Ba'al said. "I understand SG-13's mandate differs significantly from that of other SG teams. I can help you to find Faith."

"He lies," Teal'c said.

"You're sure?" Cam asked, crashing back down to earth.

"I am."

"It's simple really," Ba'al continued. "Almost elegant in its – Ahh!" cut off as the red-haired woman in front of him reached out and smashed his face down into the table, Ba'al screamed metallically.

"Hey!" Sam protested into the intercom.

"Doc!" Captain O'Neil said at the same time, darting forward and dragging the slayer away from the Goa'uld.

"Sorry," she said to him.

"That's not how we do things here," Cam told her over the intercom system.

"By dose!" Ba'al said. Those in the observation room could see the blood pouring from his flattened nose on the monitors recording the interrogation.

"Sorry," Doctor Wilson grimaced up at the observation room. "Reflex. Happens every time I hear horseshit," she added, glaring at Ba'al.

"You boke by dose!" Ba'al said incredulously.

"Yeah..." she sighed and reached over, straightening his nose as he screamed again. "Can we get a medkit?"

"Get a doctor," Cam told Sam, who was already on the phone. "A different one."

"She's a doctor?" Sam asked, horrified by the thought of someone so bloodthirsty taking the Hippocratic Oath. Quickly relaying her instructions to the airman on the other end of the line, she hung up the phone. "Do we pull them out?"

"Why?" asked Vala, her eyes on the room below. "It's working."

Sure enough, in the room below, Ba'al was telling SG-13 how he'd implanted his clones with locator chips. His head tipped back and his nose held between the bloodthirsty doctor's thumb and forefinger, the System Lord swallowed repeatedly as words spilled from his lips.

In the observation room, SG-1 turned as the door opened and General Landry ushered Malcolm Barratt into the room.

"How's it going?" General Landry smiled, walking forward. The smile fell away to be replaced by an expression of horror as he saw the scene below. "What happened?"

"Ba'al lied," Teal'c told him. "Doctor Wilson is attempting to stem the bleeding."

"What the hell?" Agent Barratt said. "You can't treat prisoners like that! We'll see what the president says when he hears about this." He slammed out of the room, leaving a sheepish-looking SG-1 facing their commander.

"Sir..." Cam said.

"Save it Colonel," Landry snapped. "Just tell me we've got something."

"Well, Ba'al has given us a way to track his clones, sir." Sam told him.

"Great," he said. "What does he want in return?"

"Us to take them out for him," said Cam.

General Landry snorted, watching the scene below. One of the SGC's doctors had arrived and was treating Ba'al's injured nose, laying a plaster over the bridge and cleaning the blood from his face. The Goa'uld winced and snatched the wipes from the man's hand, his eyes flaring gold.

"Yeah, well, that all sounds swell," Captain O'Neil said as the frightened doctor scurried from the room. "But I can't help noticing you still haven't given us a reason to help you."

"Ah," Ba'al said, gingerly dabbing his upper lip. "I should perhaps mention that every one of my clones knows of the SGC's search for Merlin's weapon and if any one of them, at any point, were captured by the Ori, and it were to somehow... slip out... that Earth was looking for a weapon deadly to the Ori..."

"Not good," breathed Andrew Wells.

"How do you know about Merlin's weapon?" Doctor Wilson asked, frowning.

"Anubis," Ba'al told her. Captain O'Neil took a step back and Ba'al turned his attention to him. "Ah, a name you recognise, Captain. No doubt you are also aware that I was, for a time, his most trusted acolyte. He dedicated considerable effort to finding Merlin's weapon during his time in our plane of existence, but he never succeeded."

Smirking, Ba'al leaned back in his seat as the three humans in front of him looked at one another. This was beyond their remit and he knew it. The sparse information his clone on Earth had managed to gather about the mysterious new SG team had piqued his interest to the point where he'd deviated from his carefully laid plans. A mistake, he acknowledged as his nose throbbed painfully.

"Lemme guess," said the young Captain who appeared to command the team. "You think you can succeed where he failed."

"Not at all," Ba'al lied smoothly as the door to his cell opened to reveal General Landry standing in the hallway outside. With a jerk of his head, the General signalled SG-13 outside.

"But we're not finished," the civilian male protested.

"Yes," the General said coldly. "You are."

**l**

Like avenging furies, the four slayers appeared to be everywhere at once that day. Wherever the battle raged fiercest, whenever Jaffa were in danger of being overwhelmed, they appeared, until the very sight of them was enough to spark fear in the hearts of the opposing Ori forces and hope in the Jaffa. In the midst of the fight, Faith was barely aware that they were fighting a losing battle, only that they were being steadily driven back to the outskirts of the town. A woman's scream, high and shrill, pierced the air and Faith took off in that direction at a sprint, Nya and Mallie hot on her heels and Kay bringing up the rear.

The scream seemed to come from one street over and Faith dodged down an alley that led in the right direction, narrowly avoiding a bolt of Ori fire. A house at the end of the alley was on fire and she carefully skirted the flames to end up in the middle of a fire-fight.

On one side were Jaffa soldiers, including Gelan, defending a small group of women and children, on the other, Ori soldiers. Next to her, a fierce blaze which seared the air, sucking oxygen from her lips and heating the clothes she wore until they burned her skin. Taking careful aim, she broke cover.

Running in seemingly random directions to avoid the concentrated Ori fire her lithe form attracted as she took out soldier after soldier, Faith ended up directly in front of the nearest group of enemy soldiers. By that time, Mallie and Nya were past the burning house and firing on the Ori and Faith was able to concentrate on fighting the soldiers in front of her. Using the zat in one hand as a blunt weapon and the knife in her other, the group was quickly eliminated. Her scruples of the day before sacrificed long ago on the battlefield as she fought for her life, Faith moved on to the next lot of soldiers without even a twinge of guilt or ounce of concern for the men she left broken and bleeding behind her.

She was sheltering behind a broken wall, Nya and Mallie beside her and Kay similarly pinned down on the other side of the road when Gelan threw himself next to her. Glancing behind, Faith was relieved to see that the women and children were out of sight and that a few more Jaffa had stuck around to help.

"Tek ma tae Faith," Gelan greeted. "It is good to see you once again."

"Yeah, you too," said Faith. "You ready?"

Gelan grabbed her arm as the Tau'ri woman started to rise, pulling her back down with some difficulty, "What is your plan?"

Faith shook off his hand with ease, "Take out the bad guys," she told him. Duh!

Gelan blinked as she threw herself over the top of the wall, her arm outstretched as she fired the zat'nik'tel she carried. Shrugging, he grasped his staff weapon tighter and stood. It was a good plan.

Finally they were headed up the street instead of down it, pushing back against wave after wave of Ori soldiers until the square where it all began was in sight. More Jaffa had rallied to join them and Faith and her slayers were at the head of a small yet effective force. The front ranks of the Ori soldiers shifted and then parted to reveal a Prior.

He strode forward into the front ranks and Faith was relieved to see that it wasn't Praemas. A shot from a Jaffa staff weapon wielded by Mallie impacted harmlessly on a shimmering blue barrier that sprung to life several feet from the Prior and Faith's heart sank. They had shields now? How was that fair?

"Stop," the Prior said, raising his hands, and although he spoke quietly, his voice reached every ear on Duran. "Lay down your weapons. Accept the glorious truth of Origin in your hearts and join me in prayer."

"Yeah, when hell freezes over," Faith commented quietly, having taken advantage of the temporary ceasefire to wedge herself behind the meagre cover of a shattered well with Kay and Gelan.

"Or," the Prior's soft voice turned hard and cold. "As Malkin swept the unbelievers from his planet, like Ver Omesh, devoured by light, you shall be crushed beneath the overwhelming might of the Ori!"


	15. Outsiders: Part Two

**Author's Note:**

Seems like all I do every chapter is apologise for how long its taken me to get it posted. This time though, I do have good excuses... No sooner had I wrestled the muse back from Farscape then I got dumped by text, had an operation, went to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, lost a prestigious industry competition, finally finished college, went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed (where Jenson Button recognised me as the girl who was hanging off the TV truck at Silverstone)... and this chapter is over 19,000 words long. Phew! Thank goodness its all over and the summer holidays are here at last!! Not that you'd know it from the weather...

Enjoy!

**Outsiders - Part Two**

The Prior was still talking, his hypnotic voice holding everyone in place as he attempted to threaten and cajole the Jaffa into surrendering. Behind the ruins of a well, Faith shifted uncomfortably, her eyes meeting Mallie's as the blonde girl crouched behind a half-destroyed wall across the street, whispering urgently to Nya. Faith felt as though a thousand ants crawled over her skin, an unfortunate side effect of being so close to a Prior. Absently, she made a note to check with the others and see what effect their slaydar had on them. It was different for every slayer. She shifted again, glancing at Kay and Gelan as they sheltered with her.

"Anyone else sick of the sound a this guy's voice?" she asked them.

Kay nodded emphatically, strangely green beneath her deep tan. "Oh yeah!" she gasped, looking queasy.

"As am I," Gelan agreed, peering around the side of the well. "What do you propose we do about it?"

Faith hefted her knife thoughtfully. Energy shots bounced straight off the Prior's personal shield, but would a more traditional weapon get through? On the one hand she had her sacred duty to slay the albino freak, and in the other she had her beloved knife, one of her few remaining links to her life back on Earth. She was just opening her mouth to make the suggestion, figuring Kay or Gelan would have had more experience with shit like this and would be able to tell her if it was worth the risk, when, on the other side of the street, Nya broke free from Mallie's grasp and out from behind the wall, firing wildly as she charged towards the Prior.

"Shit!" Faith said instead, covering her as Mallie darted after her.

Gelan and Kay were also firing at the Ori soldiers, who, initially taken by surprise, slowly began to fire back. The Prior, distracted, faltered and then stopped talking. As though a spell had been broken, the sound of distant shots reached Faith's ears once again and she smiled grimly. The fight was back on.

Jaffa staff weapon shots from behind them flew above their heads and all around them as Nya reached the Prior. With a languid sweep of his glowing staff, he sent her flying back into the wall she had been sheltering behind. Already crumbling, the wall disintegrated with the impact and Nya flew through it, coming to rest a good five feet beyond the rubble that remained.

Mallie was in front of the Prior before Nya had finished moving. She threw a punch. He blocked it. She tried again. He blocked her attack once more, a serene half-smile on his face. Rage bubbling up inside her, she lashed out at him and with a subtle gesture, he pushed the air between them at her, striking her squarely on the chest and knocking her off her feet and into a pile of rubble ten feet away. Pain seared through her leg and she cried out, looking down to see a thin metal bar poking through her thigh and blood blooming on the fabric of her skirt.

Neither Faith nor Kay had been idle in the short space of time that the two encounters had taken. Kay had leapt to Nya's side, dragging her behind the shelter of the well and ordering Gelan to look after her before she took off again, racing to help Mallie. Faith had headed straight for Mallie and the Prior only to find herself facing the Prior alone after he threw Mallie aside like a ragdoll. Desperately, she fought to keep his free hand too occupied in fending her off to attempt any kind of hocus pocus. Meanwhile, firing at any Ori soldier who looked like he was about to shoot the blonde slayer lying on top of a heap of rubble, Kay flung herself down beside Mallie.

"You alright?" she asked before she caught sight of the metal sticking through Mallie's leg. "Ouch! That looks painful. Can you walk?"

"I think so," Mallie said and hissed through gritted teeth as she lifted her leg free of the metal bar. Fresh pain radiated down her leg and up her spine, making her head spin.

"Good," Kay continued firing at the Ori even as she helped Mallie to her feet. "Nya's back there. Get her and then get out of here."

"But..." Mallie protested, her eyes on Faith as she fought against the Prior.

"You're both too hurt to be anything more than a liability," Kay interrupted, pressing one of the zat'nik'tels she carried into the blonde slayer's hand. "Get to the Chappa'ai. We'll meet you there."

Giving the young girl a small push on the back to get her moving in the right direction, Kay kicked out at a soldier who had got too close for comfort, cursing the skirt that hampered her movements even as her heel sank into the soft flesh between his legs. He howled, dropping to his knees and curling into an anguished ball. She barely noticed, too busy concentrating on the next threat, and the next, and the next.

The shield that had protected the Prior was now protecting her too, Faith noticed as several shots aimed at her by Ori soldiers washed harmlessly over the shimmering shield. It was good to know that there were some benefits to getting so close to a Prior, 'cause the smell sure as hell wasn't one of 'em!

"Do all Priors stink as bad as you?" she asked him, hoping to goad him into making a mistake. Hopefully one that would let her past his defences instead of sending her flying. "Or is it just you who smells like roadkill?"

He roared in anger, his fingers twitched, the staff he held in his other hand began to glow; Faith span round on the spot, building momentum for a powerful kick to his stomach. Caught off-guard, the Prior used his staff to block the kick and as her foot hit it the Prior cried out in pain, shuddering as he dropped to his knees, cradling his flickering staff in his arms as tenderly as a mother holds her newborn babe.

"Witch!" he screamed up at her.

Faith could see a small splintered break in the wood of the staff, although it was unbroken. She grinned triumphantly.

"Bitch!" she corrected as she raised her foot and brought it down on the Prior's staff.

A loud crack echoed around the battlefield as the staff broke, and the Prior tipped his head back and screamed. The fierce fighting broke off as men and Jaffa turned to look. Faith stumbled back as the Prior continued to scream, the noise making her ears ring. Kay popped up next to her, her lips moving as she said something but Faith shook her head, pointing at her ear.

"I can't hear you!"

The Prior's scream went on and on. No human being could have produced a note so inhuman or one that lasted for so long. Faith's eyes widened as she caught sight of the flames creeping around the hem of his crumpled robes.

"Oh shit!" she said, grabbing Kay's arm and pulling her away from the Prior.

Kay resisted only until she too saw the flames that were slowly engulfing the Prior and then they were both running headlong down the street, passing horrified Jaffa in a blur. The scream reached a new feverish pitch and then ended abruptly with an ominous whoosh. The buildings in front of them reflected a red light back at the two slayers as they raced through the streets of Duran, followed by a growing stream of Jaffa. A crackling sound filled the air and Faith caught a glimpse of flames out of the corner of her eye.

Turning her head, she stared in horror at the greedy flames tearing through the houses that edged the street, keeping pace with her as she ran blindly down the street. She tripped on some debris and the fire raced on ahead as she stumbled, finding herself in the middle of a crowd of running Jaffa once she stabilised herself. There was no sign of Kay and she could only hope that the older woman was still running.

Ahead, the street widened, burning houses giving way to fields that, miraculously, hadn't caught light yet. The houses around her began to disintegrate as Faith ran, burning fragments raining down on her. She put her head down and ran faster, overtaking Jaffa as flames licked at her heels. And then she was past the last roaring house, out into cooler air that didn't burn her lungs with thick smoke.

She risked a glance over her shoulder and was horrified to see that not only was the whole town burning, but there was no-one behind her.

As she watched, a burning figure separated itself from the wall of flames that engulfed the town, staggering a few steps before falling to the ground. He lay perfectly still as the flames continued to devour his body. Trying not to throw up, Faith turned her attention back to the road that led to the Stargate.

Expecting to find the clearing a chaotic shambles, Faith was pleasantly surprised to find that it was almost completely empty as she and the last of the Jaffa from the town arrived. The Stargate was active and only a troop of Jaffa warriors guarding the clearing and Gelan remained behind. Winded from the long fight and fast run, Faith jogged over to him as the Jaffa she had been following ran straight through the 'Gate.

"Where's Kay?" she rasped, resting her hands on her knees as she gulped clean air into her smoke-choked lungs.

"I'm here," Kay's voice came from a small tangle of shaking undergrowth and the short-haired slayer emerged backwards, dragging their cases with her.

Glad someone had remembered that she'd insisted they stash the majority of their belongings near the Stargate before they went to bed, just in case, Faith grinned, straightening.

"Mallie and Nya?" she asked.

"They are safe," Gelan told her, gesturing towards the open Stargate. "We must join them in all haste."

Faith could hear the distant engines on the air too, and her superior eyesight allowed her to pick out the threatening shapes on the horizon before the Jaffa could. She frowned, suddenly terribly aware that her zat was gonna be useless against Ori fighter ships. Would a staff weapon work?

"Good idea," she said and they ran for the 'Gate.

There was the usual disconcerting flicker of nothingness between stepping into the 'Gate and stepping out and then Faith was running down stone steps into a large and dusty circular plaza lined with imposing buildings and a temple carved into a large mountain.

"Faith!"

Faith heard Mallie's cry moment before the young slayer slammed into her, giving her just enough time to raise her arms before she was gripped in a tight hug. Awkwardly, Faith patted Mallie on the back, her eyes scanning the seething crowd of refugees for Nya.

There she was, the left side of her face a raw and bloody mess and her left arm hanging useless from a dislocated shoulder. Passing Mallie over to Kay, Faith walked over to Nya, taking a firm hold of her injured shoulder and arm.

"This is gonna hurt," she warned, seconds before she popped the arm back into its socket.

To her credit, Nya didn't so much as whimper. She did pale, biting her lip so hard that she drew blood, but she didn't make a sound as Mallie and Kay made their way through the seething mass of Jaffa over to them.

"You did good," Faith told Nya quietly before they arrived, seeing the dejected look on her face. The undamaged side of her face twisted bitterly and Faith got the feeling that she woulda said something if only Mallie hadn't popped up beside them then.

"What happened?" Mallie asked urgently. "Kay will not tell me. She says it is your story to tell. What happened to the Prior?"

"He's toast," Faith told her, meeting Kay's sympathetic eyes.

"How?" Mallie pressed.

"Snapped his staff," Faith said succinctly. Seeing the eager look in Mallie's eyes, she sighed, knowing that the younger slayer wouldn't give up until she had the full story, "He went up in flames. We bailed. Whole town caught fire. Don't recommend it."

Catching sight of the blood on Mallie's skirt for the first time, Faith suddenly realised that the young girl had been limping badly earlier, "What the hell happened to you?"

**l**

Stepping out of the gloomy castle into the brilliant sunshine of the courtyard, Jon screwed up his eyes tightly before he slipped the sunglasses perched on the top of his head down onto the bridge of his nose. The sun diluted, he was able to properly see the courtyard. Across from the stone gateway, Andrew was stood in front of the Stargate, muttering to himself as he threw a pink powder over the huge Ancient artefact.

Sulkily, Jon kicked at a pebble as he made his way across the courtyard. Ba'al had clones scattered across the galaxy and Hank wouldn't let him help hunt them down. It wasn't fair. Ba'al had asked specifically for SG-13 but Hank had given the task of proving the clones existed to SG-1. Just because the Doc broke his nose.

"How much longer?" he asked Andrew grumpily.

"Shh," Andrew hushed him, picking up a small bowl of blood and turning to face him. "I'm about to start the main invocation. I need absolute quiet and concentration."

"Or...?" drawled Jon.

"The Stargate could implode," Andrew told him, turning back to the Stargate and biting his lip uncertainly before he dipped his finger in the blood and began drawing symbols on the 'Gate.

"Okay!" Jon said, "I'll just... be over here," he pointed to a corner of the courtyard. "Being quiet."

Walking over to his self-assigned position as Andrew continued drawing on the 'Gate with snake blood, Jon frowned as his boot scraped against something on the floor. Bending down, he picked up the cheap plastic lighter. It wasn't even refillable he noticed absently, turning it over in his hand and testing the flint.

"Whatcha got?" the Doc asked him and Jon jumped, not having heard her approach. Her increased agility and strength had meant that she could reach areas of the castle that he couldn't and so he'd left her alone to explore. Evidently, she was done.

Wordlessly, he handed the lighter over and she examined it carefully for a moment before giving it back. Jon wondered if she'd seen what he'd seen in the small piece of plastic and metal as he placed it in his shirt pocket. The metal was too shiny for the lighter to have been there long, not corroded in the slightest despite the salty atmosphere that permeated the castle collapsing into the sea. Even if he hadn't known that no-one on SG-1 smoked, he would have known that the lighter couldn't belong to the last SGC team to set foot on the Ancient world.

"Think its Faith's?" she asked him and Jon shrugged, looking beyond her at Andrew as he placed one last dab of blood on the 'Gate and set the bowl down. "You should show it to Oz," the Doc continued, her yellow eyes earnest. "He might be able to get a scent off it."

"Ya think?" Jon said caustically but quietly, irritated that he hadn't thought of that.

Bristling, the Doc opened her mouth to retort only to be interrupted by Jon placing his finger over his lips as he slid down the wall into a sitting position. He pointed behind her and she turned to see Andrew in front of the 'Gate, his arms outstretched to the sky.

"Oh," she said softly. "Has he been chanting long?"

"Just started," Jon told her, and she joined him on the ground, her back against the wall and her legs bent.

"Might as well get comfy," she explained in response to his enquiring look.

The silence between them stretched uncomfortably, tension thickening the air. Stealing a peek at Jon, Jool snapped her eyes back to Andrew as soon as she realised the young officer was looking back at her, feeling a faint blush colour her cheeks. This was ridiculous, she realised. She should say something. After all, she was older. He probably didn't have a clue what to say.

"About this morning," she began.

"I didn't mean..." he said at the same time.

They both stopped talking at once, embarrassed confusion written on their faces as they each avoided the other's eye.

"You first," Jon told her.

"No, you," she insisted.

"I, uh," Jon said quietly, his eyes trained on Andrew. "I didn't mean you should get an abortion."

"Then what did you mean?" she asked promptly as he paused to grope for words.

"That we'd work something out, "Jon told her. "Custody... child support... a replacement slayer to take your place..."

"Replacement slayer?" the Doc's voice crept up a decibel in outrage.

"Well, yeah," Jon said, feeling a little like a deer in the headlights as he struggled to work out what was wrong with that. "I mean, you wouldn't be able to go off-world while you were pregnant and after the kid was born you'd probably want to stay with it," realising that he was only making things worse as the Doc turned bright red with anger, Jon wisely shut up.

"Why not?" she wanted to know. "Nikki Wood slayed until the day she gave birth and went back out patrolling the next night! Several of the slayers called in the battle against the First are mums. Okay, so they're all married or living with their child's fa-"

She stopped talking as seven of the sigils marked into the Stargate resting against one wall suddenly glowed with an eldritch light. Fumbling for her notebook and pen as Jon stared open-mouthed and Andrew punched the air, whooping with elation, she quickly jotted the symbols down. Not a moment too soon as they quickly faded from view.

"Tell me you got that," Andrew demanded excitedly, turning around to face them. "Oh, hey Jool," he greeted as she waved her notebook at him.

"I got it," she told him.

"Cool," said Andrew. "How long have you been there?"

"'Bout five minutes," Jon told him, checking his watch as he got up. "We good to go?"

"I just need to hook up the naquada generator," Andrew said. "Colonel Carter told me how to."

Jon and Jool exchanged a look as Andrew pulled a sheaf of scribbled notes out of his pocket and referred to them before he bent and opened the large case containing the generator. Pushing herself to her feet, Jool stretched sinuously.

"I'm just going to go for a quick run," she told them as Andrew carefully lifted the generator out of its case. "Check out the outside."

"Hey!" Jon called after her as she sprinted through the castle gate. "Doc, wait!" Despite the distance between them he knew she could hear him. She just chose to ignore him.

"For crying out loud!" Jon said to himself. It wouldn't take five minutes to hook up the naquada generator and then they'd be forced to hang around waiting for her. He wanted to get back to the SGC and find out if Ba'al was telling the truth, dammit! Catching Andrew's eye as the blonde man crouched on the flagstones staring up at him, Jon scowled, jamming his hands in his pockets.

"She won't be long," Andrew told him. "She probably just needs to burn off some energy. Slayers do."

"Don't you have a generator to attach to the Stargate?" Jon asked him acerbically.

Andrew coloured and hunched over his notes, his lips moving silently as he read. Feeling guilty for snapping, after all it wasn't Andrew's fault the Doc had disobeyed him, Jon kicked at a rough flagstone for a moment before coming to a decision.

"Wanna hand?" he offered generously.

It took them less than five minutes to get the Stargate working. To Jon's annoyance, the Doc jogged into the courtyard seconds before they were finished. She wasn't even breathing hard. Jon promptly ordered her to dial Earth. It was petty but it meant that he and Andrew didn't have to struggle to turn the inner ring. She did it without complaint, neatly skipping back as the wormhole engaged.

"Let's get out of here," she said as Jon punched their code into his GDO. "This place gives me the creeps."

Never a truer word was spoken, Jon thought ruefully as his GDO lit up green and he signalled his team to move through the 'Gate. Ten-year-old ghosts lurked around every corner and it was just plain weird being back here with a different team. Alone, he took one last look around the courtyard before he stepped through the 'Gate, back home to the SGC.

**l**

Rummaging through their cases, Faith kept up a running stream of absent curses. Space was at a premium on this new planet, with thousands of displaced Jaffa joining those who lived here, and no-one had room for four human women. Gelan had managed to convince two Jaffa to give up their tent at the edge of a refugee camp which spread far beyond the city's walls but he had plenty of other people to see settled in to their new home and had left shortly afterwards. Now, Faith sat outside of the small tent, their belongings strewn about her as the few Jaffa passing by gave her a wide berth and suspicious stares. In all fairness she did look more than a little mad, with her battle-stained BDU's, wild hair and the way she was muttering to herself.

"What's wrong?" asked Kay, emerging from the tent.

"We got chocolate, ammo for a gun we don't have, coffee, saucepans, _wires_," Faith said, picking up one of each item in turn and tossing them back into the open case in front of her. "But no first aid kit."

"What does it look like?" Kay asked, sitting down beside her and pulling a case towards her.

"White box, 'bout so big," Faith measured a rectangle with her hands. "Got a green cross on the top. But it's not here," she sighed, kicking the case in front of her away. "We musta left it on the planet."

"Duran or Simarka?" Kay began to pack their possessions back in the cases.

"Nah," Faith said, absently stroking her cigarette packet. "The glowy one. Damn!" she kicked out at the unfortunate case once again.

"Why do you want it?"

"It's got bandages and shit in it that we need to patch up those two," Faith told her, jerking a thumb back at their tent.

"Can we do without it?" Kay asked.

"We'll need a lot of stuff we don't have," Faith warned her.

"Like what?"

"Like bandages, tweezers... pointy things to get the grit out of Nya's face," Faith explained when Kay frowned, making a tweezing motion with one hand. "The strongest liquor we can get, stuff to clean the wounds, antibacterial cream if we can get it."

"Anti... bat... what?"

"Never mind," Faith stared morosely at the trees in the distance. Her fingers caressed the cigarette packet she held.

"Give me the ammo," Kay said, reaching for all that she could see. "I may be able to trade it for some of the things we need."

"You think you can?" Faith's face lit up at the thought.

"Tau'ri weapons are in great demand," Kay explained. "The ammunition for one should fetch a good price."

She separated the clips into two piles, placing half in one of the cases and tucking the rest into the folds of her gown as she stood.

"Will you come with me?" she asked. "You might learn of Master Bra'tac's whereabouts."

"Bra'tac?" Faith said with a frown. "Isn't he on Dakara?"

Kay laughed, "This is Dakara."

It was? Sorely tempted to go with her and track down this Bra'tac who could take her home, Faith glanced back over her shoulder at their tent, thinking of the two injured slayers within. She had a responsibility to look after them. What was it Giles called it...? A duty of care. She'd dragged them into the fight and it was her job to look after them now they were hurt.

"Better not," she said reluctantly. "Got a lot to do before you get back."

"I'll be as quick as I can," Kay promised.

Faith grunted, waving a hand in her direction, too busy packing their stuff away to watch her go. Snapping the latches of the cases closed, she shoved them into the tent.

"Ow!" Mallie cried out.

"Sorry," Faith apologised, cringing.

Twitching the tent flap closed, Faith stood, brushing off the seat of her pants and stretching before she headed in the direction of the forest, in search of firewood. Walking underneath the massive trees, she was disappointed to see that the woods had already been picked clean of anything larger than a twig. Thinking about the sprawling camp of refugees, she guessed it made sense but it meant that she had to snap limbs from the trees unless she wanted to go back to the tent empty-handed. Before long, she was carrying a huge pile of tree branches and, almost completely obscured, she made her way back to the camp, dumping the branches in front of the tent.

"Water..." she said to herself, snatching up the largest pan they had.

Of course, she didn't know the way and spent a lot of time wandering around the camp before someone was finally willing to acknowledge her long enough for her to get directions. She almost wished she hadn't bothered when she caught sight of the long line stretching back from a well but she joined it anyway, fidgeting impatiently until it was her turn. To her disbelief, instead of pouring her water from the bucket like he had everyone else, the huge bald Jaffa with a seagull tattooed on his forehead picked up a ladle and used that to pour out a meagre amount. Faith stared down into her saucepan in disbelief as he motioned the next in line forward. The water it contained was barely enough to cover the bottom.

"What the fuck?" she said, refusing to budge from her position at the front of the queue. "Are you kidding me?"

"Rations," the Jaffa grunted, pouring water from the bucket into a large copper cauldron. He dropped the bucket back down the well.

"Yeah, well I'm fetchin' for four," Faith said, sticking the saucepan further out as the hulking Jaffa pulled the bucket back up. "Fill 'er up big guy."

Ignoring her, he poured the bucket of water straight into the cauldron and tossed the bucket into the well. Faith heard it land with a splash and saw red.

"I thought you said this shit was rationed! How come she gets as much as she wants?" the Jaffa continued to ignore her, pulling the bucket up again. "Yo, baldilocks! I asked you a question!"

The gathering crowd took a collective breath as the bald Jaffa dropped the bucket, turning to Faith with a steely glint in his eyes. The stout owner of the copper pot hurriedly picked it up and dumped the contents in Faith's pan. There was too much for the saucepan to hold and water spilled over the edge and down Faith.

"Run," the Jaffa woman advised, placing herself between Faith and the bald Jaffa.

"Nah," Faith said, stepping around her. "Baldy wants to go some, I'm game. Wassa matter, baldilocks? Chicken? Brrr bk bk bk _bkerrr_!"

Enraged by her incomprehensible taunts, the bald Jaffa swung a meaty fist at her gut. Neatly sidestepping, Faith planted a foot in the back of his knee, elbowing him in the back of the head when he dropped to his knees. He fell forward into the muddy ground face first and lay there unconscious. Satisfied, Faith stepped back, pleased that she hadn't spilled a drop of water from the brimming pan.

"Thanks," she said to the open-mouthed Jaffa woman.

The circle of watching Jaffa drew back respectfully to make way for her as she sauntered away, a small smirk quirking the corner of her mouth. Those staring after her as she made her way gracefully through the camp had no clue that her feet were squelching unpleasantly in her soaked boots and that her elbow was still numb from making contact with the Jaffa's hard head.

**l**

Jool sighed as she stared at her computer screen. Most of the SGC personnel affected by the canine Prior plague had recovered enough to be sent home to recuperate, freeing up space in the infirmary for casualties of the capture missions scheduled tomorrow. Just a few of the more serious cases remained at the SGC, Oz included. The werewolf was recovering slowly, a side effect of the silver still in his system. Hopefully the full moon cycle that started tomorrow would burn the last vestiges out of his system and he would be fine. And she wouldn't have to call Giles and explain that she'd managed to cripple her team-mate after less than a month working with him. She looked up from her computer at a knock on her door to see Colonel Carter standing in the doorway.

"I got a message saying that the DNA results were through," the blonde woman said crisply, entering the room.

"Ah, yes," said Jool, pulling up the relevant screen and gesturing to a nearby chair. That was quick, she thought. She'd only just sent the email.

"I'd rather stand, thanks," Colonel Carter told her stiffly, doing just that behind Jool's left shoulder.

"Oh, okay," Jool said politely, flustered by the Colonel's stern demeanour. "Um..."

"Are those the results?" she asked abruptly.

"Yes," Jool leapt on the conversational starter. "As you can see they're completely identical," she told Colonel Carter, pointing at her computer screen. "I wish I had better news," Jool said apologetically as Colonel Carter stared at the test results.

"So, you're saying there's no way to tell them apart?" the blonde woman asked.

"We mapped out DNA profiles from all four samples using a range of analysis techniques," said Jool.

"Sorry?" the Colonel interrupted. "Four?"

"We tested the Goa'uld and the host separately, "Jool told her. "It was actually rather fascinating."

"Right," Colonel Carter cut her off again, clearly uninterested.

"We ran each test three times and each time we found a perfect match across thirteen specific markers," Jool said. "I'm sorry Colonel Carter, but either the clones are genetically indistinguishable from the original Ba'al..."

"Or we have two clones on our hands," Colonel Carter finished for her. "I see. Thank you," she added on her way out of the door.

Staring after her, Jool sighed. Why did she get the distinct impression that Colonel Carter didn't like her?

**l**

Inserting one leg into damp pants, Faith grimaced. Unfortunately, the blood-stained, scorched and filthy clothing she had been issued so long ago aboard the Korolev were the only clothes she currently possessed. On the bright side, she'd finally managed to get rid of the fugly Ori dress by leaving it in her room on Duran and she wasn't as bad off as Nya, who was still stuck in the concealing robes of her homeworld. Pulling her t-shirt on over her head, Faith flung the tent flap open, crawling out to stand upright. Breathing in a lungful of fresh air, she stretched the kinks out of her back. Oh, that felt good!

"Morning," Mallie said. "Coffee?"

"Hell, yeah," said Faith, dropping down to sit next to the young blonde and accepting the tankard of coffee she was holding out. It was hot and she juggled it between her hands before setting it on the ground in front of her. "Where're the others?"

"Collecting wood for the fire," Mallie told her.

They'd be a while then, Faith thought to herself, "Cool. How's the leg?"

"Painful," Mallie glanced ruefully at her injured leg. "But better. Thank you."

Faith grunted in reply, gulping down large amounts of too hot coffee so that she didn't have to acknowledge Mallie's thanks. Gratitude made her uncomfortable, especially when she didn't feel like she'd earned it.

"So what is the plan for today?" Mallie asked eagerly when it became obvious that Faith wasn't going to volunteer the information.

"Dunno what the others are up to," Faith told her, setting her empty tankard on the ground. "But I'm gonna go see if I can track down this Bra'tac guy."

"Now?" asked Mallie as Faith stood, brushing dirt from the seat of her pants.

"Yup," said Faith. "Catcha later."

"Would it not be better to wait until the others have returned?" Mallie said but Faith had already gone. She sighed, "So that they can go with you," she finished quietly.

Malina scowled bitterly at her injured leg, throwing a nearby twig into the dying fire with more force than necessary. She felt useless, unable to walk to the nearby forest to collect wood, unable to go with Faith. She did not like the idea of the Tau'ri slayer going to find the Jaffa who knew the location of Earth by herself. Malina had pledged to follow her wherever she went and right now she could barely hobble three steps, even with her increased healing abilities.

And what would happen to her, and Kay and Nya when Faith returned to Earth? Would they be able to go with her? Where would they go if they could not? What would they do? There was no way that Malina would go back to Terluna and Nya could not return home without the address of her world. Perhaps the Jaffa would allow them to remain on Dakara in return for their help in the fight against the Ori?

"Hey," Kay's voice broke in on Malina's thoughts and she looked up at the other woman, blinking in surprise. "Where's Faith?"

Faith was jogging lightly up the stone steps of the old temple she had had pointed out to her as the most likely place to find 'Master' Bra'tac. Reaching the top, she headed for the huge open doors only to find her way blocked by two armoured Jaffa, carrying staff weapons.

"What is your business here, human?" sneered the one on the left.

"Came to see a man about a dog," Faith told him flippantly. "Bra'tac's the guy."

"Master Bra'tac is in Council meetings all day," the Jaffa on the right said.

"He is too busy to see you," Lefty added, just in case she hadn't got the message.

"Cool," Faith said even though it wasn't. "Do me a favour?" she asked Righty. "Tell him Faith stopped by when you see him."

"I shall," he promised, inclining his head slightly as Lefty glared at him.

Hopefully he'd get the message, Faith thought as she walked back down the steps, and hopefully the SGC had put the word out that she was MIA. In the meantime, there was more than one way to skin a Klanta demon... which was fortunate 'cause it was the only way to kill 'em. Looking back over her shoulder at the impressive front entrance to the temple and the guards there, Faith grinned. Time to case the joint. She might get lucky and find an unguarded back entrance or a window or something.

She hadn't got far when the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end and she froze. What the hell was a Goa'uld doing on Dakara? Her gaze raked the crowded market as Faith tried to pinpoint the alien snake.

**l**

Jon sulked as he watched SG team after SG team deploy through the 'Gate. It wasn't fair. Hank had scrambled every available team, bulking out teams with members on sick leave with the marines who usually guarded the SGC, to capture the Ba'als scattered throughout the galaxy but SG-13 still weren't allowed to join in the manhunt. Instead they had to wait until everyone else had gone Ba'al hunting before they 'Gated to P4-whatever to search for Faith.

He'd tried logic, pointing out the benefits of having SG-13 join in the hunt for the clones. Then he'd tried threatening to call himself, only he hadn't put it quite like that. Finally, in desperation, he'd sicced Andrew on Hank. None of it had worked and so he was sulking.

Yes, it was childish and immature but so was his body for crying out loud. Was it really asking too much to be allowed to help capture the Goa'uld who had tortured him to death? Repeatedly! Okay, so it hadn't actually been him, even if he did remember it. But it wasn't like it was the real Ba'al either!

**l**

Faith's ears caught a snatch of a familiar voice and she spun around, her gaze zeroing in on a tall brunette haggling with a trader. Her jaw dropped. No way...

"Yo, Anise!"

Freya flinched as Anise reacted to the cry with fear and alarm. _Quickly_, her symbiote urged and Freya found herself agreeing to an outrageous price. Hurriedly, she exchanged money for goods and turned away as Anise's name was shouted again. She hurried through the market, expecting to be stopped at any moment, and ducked down an alley only to discover it was a dead end. Freya turned to retrace her steps and leapt back when she saw the figure standing in the entrance to the alleyway.

"F-Faith," she whispered.

"Going somewhere, Anise?" Faith asked, staring at her forehead.

Freya's eyes glowed momentarily as Anise assumed control, "Do not speak that name aloud!" she commanded. "Many Jaffa do not distinguish between Goa'uld and Tok'ra."

"So what should I call you?" asked Faith, still staring at her forehead. "'Cause 'snake' just screams for attention."

"Call me Freya," Anise told her.

"Freya," Faith rolled the name around her tongue experimentally. "Cute. It hers?"

Anise relinquished control, pushing Freya to the front so that she could answer for herself. Faith frowned as she watched the change, her gaze boring into their forehead.

"Yes," Freya replied meekly. She flinched as Faith moved closer, "P-please don't hurt me."

"Relax," Faith said, spreading her hands out peaceably, "I'm not gonna hurt ya. That real?" she asked, motioning at her forehead.

"N-no," said Freya, touching the Jaffa tattoo she had painted onto her forehead not so long ago.

"Cool," Faith said. "Looks real."

"What do you want?" Freya asked fearfully.

"Hot bath, clean clothes, world peace," Faith shrugged. "Mostly I wanna go home and I'm wondering if you can help a girl out."

Freya smiled as Anise flooded her with feelings of confidence and encouragement, "Oh yes," she said. "But I don't have my GDO with me. We'll have to go back to my lab."

"GDO?" Faith asked.

"Garage Door Opener," Freya explained the strange acronym, leading the way out of the alley. "Why weren't you issued one when you left the SGC?"

"Long story," Faith said, thinking back over all that had happened since she had left Earth. If anyone had told her then that she'd find slayers in space, she'd have laughed in their faces, even after her slayer dream. "Damn!"

"What is it?" Freya asked, worried.

"We've gotta swing by and pick up some friends of mine first," Faith told her, adjusting their course. "That gonna be a problem?" she asked as Freya frowned.

Anise ramped up the encouragement a notch but Freya hadn't been host to her for all these years without learning to detect the traces of curiosity mixed in with the emotion. "Of course not," she said, wondering if Anise's eagerness to help the Tau'ri woman had anything to do with the possibility of her being a Hok'taur.

**l**

The event horizon of the wormhole rippled as three figures stepped through it. Squinting in the sunlight, Jon surveyed the clearing. Nothing had changed since he had last been there. Ruined stones still lay where they had toppled long ago, the grass was still about knee-height and the trees still edged around the steep slopes surrounding the clearing.

"Okay campers," he said to the other two as the Stargate shut off behind them. "Let's magic the last address out of the 'Gate, check in with the locals, make sure that Faith's not crashing with them and get outta here. Hopefully we'll make it back in time for The Simpsons."

"You really think it'll be that easy?" the Doc asked him, coming up to stand alongside him as Andrew pulled off his large pack after a brief struggle.

"Ya, sure, you betcha," Jon said flippantly. "Piece of cake."

"No SG team has been here for eight years," she said, frowning. "Who knows how the local culture will have changed in that time."

"Plus you just jinxed us," Andrew added.

"Did not," Jon said indignantly.

"Did too," Andrew said placidly, carefully setting out spell ingredients.

"Did not," Jon petulantly tried to get the last word in.

"You kinda did," the Doc told him with a shrug.

Flipping his sunglasses down over his eyes, Jon scowled, "I'm gonna go check the perimeter," he told them. "Let me know when you're done with the mojo."

"Someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning," commented Jool, watching him as he stamped towards the treeline.

**l**

Kay was the first to feel the warning tingle of her 'slaydar' and she stood in response to the feeling, looking around. Nya looked up at her as she stood there with a frown on her face and then her stomach cramped painfully. She gasped, clutching her belly.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What?" asked Mallie, looking first at her and then up at Kay.

"Goa'uld," Kay growled, stalking forward to meet Faith and the brown-haired woman following her.

"What is a Goa'uld?" Nya asked Mallie.

"What happened?" Kay asked as soon as she was in range of Faith and the Goa'uld. "I thought you were going to find Master Bra'tac."

"Yeah, he's locked in meetings all day," Faith said. "His people are gonna call my people and we'll do lunch sometime but in the meantime I bumped into my ole buddy Freya! She's not just your basic, average, everyday, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, ho-hum snake, oh no, she's a Tok'ra. And she's gonna take us back to Earth."

"All of us?" Mallie asked from her seat by the fire.

"All of us," Faith confirmed, ruffling her hair with a grin. "How long's it gonna take to pack?"

"It is already done," Nya told her respectfully.

"Jeez Ny, why are you still wearin' the veil?" Faith said, getting a good look at the dark-haired slayer. Not that she could get a good look at the woman behind the concealing robes. "You're outta the harem girl, time to live it up a little."

"She's worried about the scarring on her cheek," Kay said uneasily as Nya ducked her head. "Faith..."

"I thought the Tok'ra were just a myth," said Mallie, wide-eyed as she gazed up at Freya.

"I assure you, we are very real," Freya said gravely.

"So we're good to go?" Faith asked. "Cool," she said when Nya nodded. "Can you walk?" she asked Mallie.

"Anywhere you can," Mallie insisted, struggling to stand. Faith reached down and easily lifted her to her feet. "Thank you."

Nya moved forward to help Mallie stay standong as Faith ducked into the tent. Kay glanced at the Tok'ra only to discover that she was looking at her with a calculating gaze. Quickly she looked away as Faith emerged from the tent, clutching the cases of their belongings. Using the cases as an excuse to get closer to the Tau'ri woman, Kay caught Faith's eye as she took two of them from her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she whispered.

"It's the best one I got," Faith said quietly. "Yeah, she's a snake but at least she timeshares."

Faith moved away from her, clapping Nya on her good shoulder as she walked past the other two slayers to join the Tok'ra. Kay fell in at the back of the procession as they made their way through the busy Jaffa camp, her eyes boring into the Tok'ra's back. For the first time she noticed how easily the eyes of the Jaffa surrounding them slipped away from the small group of human women and the Tok'ra disguised as a Jaffa. She had a bad feeling about this, she thought as the Chappa'ai appeared in sight.

"My lab is some distance from the Stargate," Freya was telling Mallie as Kay joined the small group milling in front of the Chappa'ai. "Will you be able to walk there?"

"Of course," Mallie insisted as Kay sidled up to Faith.

"We're going to her lab?" Kay asked Faith quietly. "I thought you said we were going to Earth."

"We gotta pick up her iris controller first," Faith said just as quietly. "Unless you wanna splat up against it before you've stepped out the 'Gate."

That... wouldn't be good, Kay thought as Faith stepped away and the Chappa'ai flared into life. Faith and Freya were the first through, followed shortly by Mallie and Nya and leaving Kay alone in front of the ancient device. She stared at the flickering energy that filled the Chappa'ai and frowned. A really bad feeling, she thought as she stepped into it.

Across the other side of the plaza, at the opposite end to the Stargate, Master Bra'tac walked out of the temple doors, deep in conversation with one of his fellow Council members. A long-seasoned warrior, he registered the Chappa'ai flicking out of use in the distance, but barely bothered to notice the two guards in front of the temple entrance until one of them called his name. Telling Cha'ra to go on without him, that he would catch him up, Bra'tac turned to the guard.

"Forgive the interruption, Master Bra'tac," the Jaffa said, bowing his head respectfully. "But a human woman tried to gain entry to the temple today. She said she had come to see you about a dog."

"But I do not own a dog," Bra'tac said, frowning. A human woman?

"She asked me to tell you that Faith had stopped by."

"Faith?" Bra'tac asked urgently, tightly gripping the guard's arm. "How long ago? Which way did she go?"

**l**

The Doc had been right about things changing, Jon thought grimly as he stared through his field binoculars. The Shavadai had gone; he really hoped that they had just moved to better grazing or something. They'd spent a good couple of hours tramping around looking for signs of civilisation before he'd finally allowed the Doc to go off scouting on her own. Not a good move on a planet that routinely subjugated women, but one that had paid off as she'd come back a few minutes later with the news that a there was a camp about a mile or so to their left.

It was a large camp. Surveying it from a ridge not far from the treeline of a large forest, Jon could see women moving about in a cloistered area in the middle of the camp. Not an enlightened tribe then.

"Andrew, you and I'll go to the camp, see if we can speak to the Chief. Doc, you stay here," he ordered, passing the binoculars to her and getting to his feet.

"And do what?" the Doc asked indignantly from her position on the ground as Andrew popped up, an eager grin on his face.

"Recon," Jon told her. "See if you can avoid being captured. These folks don't take kindly to unprotected women."

Sputtering with rage at the thought that she couldn't protect herself, Jool watched the two men descend the hill together, heading towards the camp, only thinking of several possible retorts once they were out of earshot. Fuming, she settled down for a long wait until their return.

**l**

Faith stared at the purple crystal walls of Anise's underground lair as Freya led them from the ring platform through the circular hallways. When Freya noticed her interest she started a long and technical lecture on how they were created. Tuning her out, Faith concentrated on making sure she could remember the way back to the rings.

"Wait here," Freya said, leading them into a large chamber. "I will fetch the GDO. Would any of you like refreshments?"

"Nah, we're good," said Faith as Mallie looked up eagerly. "Be even better once we get to Earth."

"I won't be long," Freya promised, slipping out of the room.

"Faith, I don't like this," Kay said as soon as she was out of earshot. "Can we trust her?"

"'Bout as far as we can throw her," Faith said and immediately frowned. "Less even."

"Then why are we following her?" Nya asked, helping Mallie sit down on a chair.

"'Cause right now, she's the best chance we got of getting to Earth," Faith told her. She sighed, "Look, once we get to the SGC we can find out the address for Simarka. They'll help us get your kid back."

"You truly think so?" Nya whispered hopefully.

"Yeah," said Faith.

"Get out!" Kay yelled the warning as a small gold-coloured metal ball rolled into the room.

The four slayers reacted instantly, heading for the opposite door, but they weren't even half-way there when the ball activated, emitting a brilliant light and an intense high-pitched sound that worked in tandem to render them all unconscious.

**l**

"Don't shoot," said Ba'al, cowering on the ground. "I am the real Ba'al."

Cam looked sceptically at him, keeping his P-90 trained on the Goa'uld as he reached for his radio. "Sam," he said into it and then stopped as the world suddenly went dark and the ground lurched beneath his feet, forcing him to stagger blindly.

Cam heard scrabbling below him and struggled to keep his weapon pointed in Ba'al's general direction as the Goa'uld began to run away, crashing through the undergrowth. From beside him came the unmistakable sound of a zat firing and something heavy fell to the ground not too far away as Cam began to see a faint blur.

"Are you well Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c'ss voice sounded faintly concerned, something that wasn't at all reassuring. It was probably the most emotion he'd ever heard from Teal'c, Cam decided as he groped for the Jaffa's shoulder.

"I'm okay," he told him, able to distinguish shapes and colours now. "Just a little dizzy I guess."

Moving away from Teal'c as the world came back into focus, although a little blurrier than before, Cam blinked rapidly and then squinted. Was it just the fuzziness or was Teal'c actually looking mildly concerned? His vision crisped up around the edges and then popped back out of the tunnel it had been in.

"Then perhaps you had best inform Colonel Carter of that fact," Teal'c informed him solemnly, all traces of an expression gone.

Realising that Sam was talking over their radios, demanding to know what was happening with a note of panicked concern in her voice, Cam grabbed his radio, "We're okay," he told her as Teal'c prodded Ba'al with his foot, turning the unconscious Goa'uld over, "Ba'al almost got away from us."

"Really?" asked Sam over the radio, sounding smug. "Ours didn't."

**l**

Chaia didn't want to go through the Chapp'ai again. She liked this place with its tall stone tents. She wanted to stay here. Maybe, if she stayed, her mother would find her. And the people who lived here were nice when they weren't being scared by the Bad Lady.

But the Bad Lady was leaving and Chaia and the Mean Man who had brought her here had to go with her. The Bad Lady had said so.

She'd tried screaming to convince the Bad Lady to let her stay but she'd just looked at her funny with those scary flames in her eyes and Chaia hadn't been able to make another sound. She'd tried but nothing came out of her mouth. It had taken two of the women who lived here two hours to get her calmed down enough to make the trip through the Chapp'ai.

Now, her voice restored, Chaia hung back as the Bad Lady stepped through the shimmering water of the Chapp'ai. Maybe if she waited until they'd all gone through, she wouldn't have to follow them. Her hopes were dashed when the Mean Man grasped her shoulder and all but pulled her through the Chapp'ai.

The clearing on the other side of the Chapp'ai reminded her so much of home that she almost started crying. Fortunately she was diverted by the sight of a large black cloud that hung in the sky and the danger passed. She hadn't cried in front of the Bad Lady yet and she wasn't going to! Her mother always said that big girls didn't cry.

Immediately she felt like crying again, homesick for her planet and her mother, but Chaia distracted herself by concentrating on the Bad Lady. She was talking to a man with a big nose and floppy hair. Listening to the Bad Lady's conversation, she learned that the man with the big nose was called Tomin, they were somewhere called Duran and that one of the Bad Lady's Mean Men had died. Chaia smiled. Good.

**l**

Alone on the hillside, Jool grimaced as she looked through the binoculars at what looked like the entire camp praying to the setting sun. Strictly speaking, she didn't need the binoculars, they only restricted her field of vision, but using them enabled her to see close-up details that she might otherwise miss. Like the tattoo on that guy's arm. Or the black eye just visible in the shadows of that woman's veiled face. Unfortunately they didn't help her to see either Andrew or Jon amongst the gathering of people. And now she _really_ didn't like these people.

Where were the guys? She hadn't been able to keep a watch on the camp all of the time; several times she'd had to hide from the roving patrols that had thundered out of the camp shortly after Jon and Andrew had been escorted to the big tent in the centre of the camp. But she hadn't seen them once after that. Were they alright?

They hadn't responded to her enquiries over the radio and she could only guess that they no longer had them. So were they prisoners? It seemed likely. In which case she should probably go and rescue them. But what if they weren't? What if they were simply ignoring her because they were busy talking to the chieftain or something? Except that she was pretty sure that the guy with the entourage was the chieftain.

Her watch beeped insistently, a reminder that the moon was rising back on Earth and Jool swore silently. Sod this, she thought. She had things to be doing, a werewolf to be observing, back on Earth. Time to grab the guys and go.

**l**

As the nurse fitted another vial to the needle in his arm, Ba'al scowled, "Surely you've taken enough already?"

"Last one," she said in a manner that was in all likelihood meant to be reassuring.

Unappeased, Ba'al allowed his gaze to drift beyond her, across the row of beds full and empty, to the team that had brought him in, laughing and joking amongst themselves and the medical personnel giving them their post-mission check-up. He allowed a silent snarl of rage to twist his lips as he stared at them.

"Crap."

The quiet exclamation came from the man lying in the bed closest to him and Ba'al frowned as he looked at him. His black hair seemed too uniform to be natural and surely he was below the minimum height required to join the military on this backward planet. Not that he was an expert on such matters, never having been assigned to Earth, but the man appeared significantly shorter than even the women of the Tau'ri that he had seen so far. As Ba'al lazily assessed the man, his skin suddenly rippled, shifting and stretching as he _grew_ into something monstrously dog-shaped.

Yelping in horror, Ba'al jumped backwards, and off the hospital bed. He yelped in the most godly of manners... _not _the girlish shriek that certain of the SGC personnel took great delight in later describing,

Unceremoniously hauled back on his feet by the two airmen assigned to guard him, Ba'al watched from the relative safety of behind one of them as a tall woman in a white coat who looked like she could have come from Yu's former territories bustled up to the man.

"What happened?" she asked him exasperatedly. The man shrugged, a sheepish expression on his canine face and she sighed. "You two," she said to two of the men who had captured Ba'al, "Escort him to an isolation room," she ordered them with a nod at the monster lying in one of her beds.

Turning around, she spotted Ba'al and frowned. The airman in front of the Goa'uld moved aside as she approached and took hold of his arm, removing the full vial of blood from the needle in his arm and handing it to the nurse on the other side of his bed. Removing the needle, she patched the wound on his arm with a sticky strip of material and turned to the airmen guarding him.

"Take the prisoner to his cell," she ordered, her voice cold and hard.

Ba'al was happy to go.

**l**

Cam slowly got ready for bed. His hip with the metal pin in it ached. He felt older than he was and it showed in his haggard face.

Because of his black-out on P3X-242, Dr Lam had confined him to the base until she was certain it was an isolated episode. With the Infirmary full to capacity with SG personnel injured in the Ba'al hunt (Cam idly wondered who had first coined the now popular phrase) and those few still recuperating from the Canine Prior Plague (and whoever had come up with that unimaginative term deserved to be shot), Cam was billeted in his quarters, with orders to report to the Infirmary first thing in the morning.

Sam had tried to drag the Mind-Melder out of storage to run more tests on it but it wasn't there. Daniel Osbourne had checked it out of the storeroom over a week ago to run his own tests on the device and Daniel Osbourne was currently residing in the infirmary, recovering from the new Prior Plague he had inadvertently spread to Earth. Cam didn't think that more tests would make a difference, although Sam was agitated enough about it to consider asking Osbourne for permission to take it back. But the Mind-Melder was dead. He and Faith had destroyed it so that he could travel to Camelot and he really wished that they hadn't. If only he could talk to Faith again, mind to mind, then he could show her the way home.

But if wishes were horses then beggars would ride, as his Grandpa would say. They had destroyed the Mind-Melder and Faith was lost somewhere in the galaxy with no clue how to get back to Earth. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe, right now, she was with SG-13, on their way back to the SGC.

It was a faint hope, but he held on to it as he fell asleep.

**l**

"Where do you think everyone went?" Andrew asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I don't know," Jon said patiently, through gritted teeth.

"What do you think Jool is doing?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think-"

"Andrew!"

"What?"

"Shut up."

Silence reigned. Then...

"This is all your fault," accused Andrew.

"What?" Jon asked incredulously. How the hell did he figure that?

"If you hadn't told Chakka where to shove his Book of Origin..."

"I wasn't the one who asked him if the reason the women all wore veils was because they were ugly!"

"I didn't say that!"

"You did! Maybe not those exact words..."

"I didn't!"

"Did!"

"Didn't!"

"Did!"

"D-"

"Is this a bad time?" Jool interrupted, amusement lacing her voice as she stood in the doorway, her eyes on the two young men tied back to back against a thick tent pole. "I could come back when you've finished...?"

"Jool!" Andrew exclaimed happily. "I knew you'd rescue us! The fearless slayer-doctor, raiding a camp full of angry natives to rescue her captured watcher and his military sidekick..."

"Hey!" Jon objected as the Doc cut the rope binding Andrew and him to the pole. He massaged his wrists absently, helping the blood to flow back into his numb fingers. "If anyone's a sidekick, it's you," he told Andrew.

"You're both sidekicks," Jool said hurriedly as Andrew pouted and opened his mouth to argue. "The camp's deserted while the natives pray to the sun and can either of you ride?"

"What?" asked Andrew, successfully diverted. "No."

"Not well," Jon told her.

"Well it's the only way we'll beat them to the 'Gate," she told them.

"Joy," Jon commented in a sarcastic monotone

**l**

Groaning, Faith stirred. Her first thought was that her bed was hard and cold. Her second, more conscious one was a memory of the mad scramble for the door. She jumped to her feet, staring wildly around her.

She was alone. The room she was in was made out of the strange crystal material of Anise's underground lair. One wall opened onto a corridor. A single bed and something that she could only guess was meant to be a toilet were in the room. There was no sign of Mallie, Kay or Nya. Her weapons, even her beloved knife, were all gone. There was a slight line in the rock of the floor, between the open wall and the hallway.

Logically, she was in a cell; not an unfamiliar situation for her. Illogically, there were no bars. So there had to be something between her room and the hallway, even if she couldn't see it. Gingerly, Faith extended her hand towards the line marked on the floor...

The air around her fingers flashed blue and pain leapt up the nerve endings in her arm. Yanking her arm back, Faith sucked her stinging fingers. It was a force field then, she thought distantly. Damn.

Where the hell were the others? Crowding as close as she dared to the force field, all she could see was a little more hallway, stretching off in both directions. Were there more cells on this side of the hallway? She couldn't tell.

"Mallie?" she shouted. There was no reply. "Nya? Kay!"

Still no reply. Maybe the force field deadened sound? She kept shouting.

Her voice was getting hoarse when she heard footsteps. Shutting up, she stepped back from the force shield and waited.

It wasn't long before Anise appeared. It was definitely Anise; she didn't have Freya's slightly cowed and eager-to-please look. Seeing that Faith was awake, she raised her eyebrows and made a note on the small hand-held device that she carried.

"What the fuck is going on?" Faith demanded without preamble, and with a lot of venom.

Anise didn't flinch. "Silence hok'taur," she commanded, tapping the device she held.

"What did you just call me?" asked Faith in a deadly quiet tone.

"Hok'taur," Anise told her dispassionately, her eyes on her device. "It means advanced human. I am attempting to discover how the Tau'ri were able to alter you in the hope of duplicating the effect to aid in our war against the Goa'uld."

She wanted to make more slayers? Faith began to laugh.

Anise looked up then, annoyance written over her cold face. "I fail to see the amusement inherent in the situation," she informed Faith. "This would proceed more quickly if you co-operated with me."

Faith told her exactly what she could do with her suggestion, managing to insult both Freya and Anise's ancestors in the process. Anise listened attentively, her head tilted slightly to one side.

"Very well," she said when Faith had finished and aimed a zat at her.

Faith managed to dodge the first shot but the second and third hit her before she dropped to the floor. The fourth flew harmlessly over her head to wash over the crystal wall at the back of the cell but Anise adjusted her aim and a fifth shot found its target.

Lying on the floor, her whole body numb and her limbs like jello, Faith played dead and hoped Anise would buy it. Footsteps approached her and then stopped. Anise called her name. Faith ignored her. She could hear the tapping of Anise's fingers as she made another entry on her device. Her right foot twitched convulsively as pins and needles erupted on the sole. Anise shot her again and this time Faith really did lose consciousness.

**l**

Nothing was said at the briefing about the NID breathing down their necks, mainly because Agent Barratt sat in on it. Likewise, nothing was discussed that they didn't want the NID to know. The hard-earned distrust that the SGC had for the NID still ran too deep, although the enmity had faded now. Instead SG-1 and their General discussed ways and means of interrogating the Ba'als in their custody and their objectives were set out before the team once again. As a final note, General Landry dryly reminded them all that they didn't want a repeat of the fiasco that had been the last attempt at interrogation (the closest any of them had come to directly mentioning SG-13) and dismissed them.

Lingering behind as his team filed out, Colonel Mitchell requested a minute of the General's time. Privately. The General agreed and, leaving Agent Barratt alone in the briefing room, they entered General Landry's office. As soon as the door closed behind them, the formal atmosphere that had presided over the entire briefing evaporated.

"Make it quick," Landry told Mitchell with a glance through his window at Agent Barratt as the NID man stood staring at the bank of screens displaying live video feed of each of the Ba'als.

"Yes sir," said Cam. "It's about SG-13."

"Mmm," Landry sat down heavily in his chair. "I presume you heard that they're back early."

"Yes sir," said Cam. Sam had been extremely upset by the news that the feminist movement on Simarka had ended since the SGC's last visit. "Did they find any sign of Faith?"

"Not one," Hank told him, and felt guilty as he watched the spark of hope in Mitchell's eyes fade. "Wells did manage to 'mojo the latest address out of the 'Gate' as Captain O'Neil informed me. Kelowna."

"Kelowna?" Cam frowned. "We sent them Faith's photo when we warned them about the Ori coming through the Supergate. Why haven't they told us she's there?"

"I don't know," said Hank, standing. "But I intend to find out. Now, if you don't mind, I have an NID agent to babysit."

**l**

Faith didn't bother groaning the second time she woke up. The pins and needles would fade soon. Ignoring the way that every inch of her body itched and prickled, she pushed herself into first a kneeling and then a sitting position on the crystal floor. Fucking zat! Motherfucking Tok'ra! At least Anise had left a tray of food and water beside her. There was no reason to starve the lab rats after all.

Speaking of lab rats... Faith called out, "Mallie?"

"Faith?" Mallie's excited exclamation came from her left. "Are you alright?"

"Five by five," replied Faith, standing up as the pins and needles roaming her body finally faded away. "Where's Kay?"

"Here," Kay's voice came from her right.

"Nya?" Faith asked.

"She is not yet awake," Mallie told her.

"But she's here?" checked Faith.

"In a cell to my left," Mallie confirmed.

"We had a short amount of time in which to confer before the _Tok'ra_ arrived and shot us with a zat'nik'tel," Kay explained, spitting out the name of Anise's people as a bitter insult.

"We were worried about you," added Mallie. "Are you sure you are alright?"

"I told you, I'm fine," said Faith, sitting down on her bed. She sighed as she ran her hand through her tangled hair, forcing her fingers to break through the snags. B would probably have a fit if she saw and would definitely have refused to even consider wearing her stained and ragged outfit but Faith couldn't care less. She was more concerned with how the hell they were going to escape. It wasn't likely that Anise would take them to Earth once she was done playing Frankenstein and even if she was intending to, did they really wanna stick around that long?

"Are you sure?" Kay pressed. "You were unconscious a long time. I've never heard of anyone being so susceptible to a shock grenade."

"Is that what that thing was?" Faith made a mental note to run like hell if she ever saw another one, not spend precious seconds staring at the damn thing. "I woke up earlier, had a nice chat with a snake and got zatted asleep." She stared at the packet of cigarettes in her hand, wishing that she still had her lighter.

"What?" said Kay.

"What happened?" asked Mallie

"What did she say?"

"Why is she doing this?"

"She wants to work out how to make more slayers," Faith told them.

"What?" Mallie's voice exploded with disbelief.

"Can she do that?" Kay asked Faith, audibly concerned.

"Why does she want to?" asked Mallie without giving Faith time to reply to Kay.

"What makes her think she can?" Kay's question didn't seem to be directed at anyone in particular.

"What will she do once she has?"

Faith dropped her head into her hands. She was getting a headache.

"What is happening?" Nya's voice came from further down the hall.

Mallie and Kay promptly turned their attention to her instead of Faith, competing with one another to pass on the little Faith had told them, their voices getting louder and louder as they talked over one another. Faith kneaded her aching forehead. This wasn't helping, she thought helplessly.

"Everyone shut the fuck up!" she roared over the others. An expectant silence fell. "Do you want Anise to hear us?" Faith asked them. They stayed silent and she took the opportunity to keep talking. "Nya, are you alright?"

"I am well," Nya replied quietly. She hesitated before adding, "Faith?"

"What?" Faith asked tiredly.

"How are we to escape?" Nya asked in a small voice.

The others waited expectantly for her answer. Faith could almost feel their anxiety pressing in on her.

"I'm working on it," she told Nya eventually. It was all she could say.

A babble of voices broke out, offering suggestions and advice. Faith's head throbbed painfully.

**l**

There was one slice of cake left. Rich and moist, it sat on a small plate, practically oozing chocolate. Andrew had clearly been let loose in the kitchen, thought Jool as she reached for it. Another hand took hold of the plate at the same time and Jool followed the hand up to its owner, grinning when she realised who it was.

"I'll arm-wrestle you for it," she offered.

"I believe you would win," Teal'c said, bowing his head to her and letting go of the cake as, beside him, Vala scoffed at the idea. "I suggest that we leave it to the fates," he held up a coin.

"Heads," called Jool and Teal'c tossed the coin into the air, snatching it out of the air and placing it on his muscled forearm before he peeled back his hand to check.

"Heads," he confirmed and put the coin back in his pocket as he picked up a plate of soggy-looking strawberry cheesecake.

"I told you you should have arm-wrestled for it," Vala whispered loudly to him.

"I still would have won," Jool told her with a teasing smile as she moved towards an empty table. Vala and Teal'c followed her.

"Against Muscles?" Vala made a rude noise of disbelief.

"I'll prove it," offered Jool, sitting opposite Teal'c and offering him her hand, her elbow resting on the tabletop. She raised her eyebrows at him, a small smile playing around her lips.

Moving his tray to one side, Teal'c placed his elbow on the table and his hand in the petite redhead's. The muscles on his arm bulged. Sweat sprung out upon his brow. Teal'c glared at their clasped hands as they remained at ninety degrees to the table. Jool picked up an apple with her other hand and nonchalantly tossed it up into the air, deftly catching it and taking a crunching bite. Vala stared, open-mouthed with disbelief. Slowly, as Jool ate her apple, Teal'c's hand moved inexorably towards the table. The stoic Jaffa grunted in defeat and his hand fell the last few inches to the table. Jool smiled smugly at Vala as she placed her apple core down on her tray and let go of Teal'c's hand.

"But... how?" Vala managed to ask as Teal'c shook the lactic acid out of his forearm and picked up a bread roll. She poked his bicep experimentally. Still muscley.

"Magic," Jool replied mysteriously. "So, how go the interrogations?"

"Not well," rumbled Teal'c.

"You can say that again!" Vala rolled her eyes, picking up a chip from her plate and eating it.

"To do so would be repetitive," Teal'c informed her solemnly. Both women frowned at him, trying to work out if he'd just made a joke.

Teal'c engrossed himself in his lunch.

"We're just grabbing a quick bite to eat before we have to check in with General Landry," Vala explained to Jool.

Eyeing Teal'c's loaded tray, Jool's eyebrows rose. If that was his idea of a quick bite then she'd hate to think what a proper meal looked like. And she thought slayers had large appetites!

As Teal'c rapidly demolished the contents of his tray, Jool and Vala chatted companionably, bringing each other up to date on the little snippets of gossip each had missed during their time off-world. It wasn't until Teal'c had finished and the two members of SG-1 had left (Vala trying to convince Teal'c to let _her_ arm-wrestle him and Teal'c declining) that Jool had a brilliant idea.

Pushing her chair back from the table with a loud scrape, she rushed from the mess, oblivious to the curious stares she attracted. It was inspired, she thought. All she needed was her lab coat and a very large needle. In her haste, she completely forgot that General Landry had forbidden SG-13 to have anything further to do with the Ba'als.

**l**

In the briefing room, Cam flicked idly through the interrogation transcripts, looking for something, anything, that he could use against Ba'al in the second round of interrogations. Ignoring the armwrestling contest that Teal'c was winning against Vala, across the table, he kept half an eye on the array of screens depicting each of the Ba'als while he waited for Sam and General Landry to appear. Had he known that in the control room below, Walter was inputting the sequence that would dial Kelowna he might not have been there to witness the events that followed.

**l**

Jool's heart thumped in her chest. Everything depended upon her ability to bluff her way past the guard on the door and she'd never been a particularly good poker player. Her hands shook slightly as she approached him and she stuffed them in the deep pockets of her snow white lab coat, nervously fingering the syringe that rested there.

"Time for his pain meds," she lied as soon as she was within speaking distance of the guard.

"'Bout time," he said, reaching into his breast pocket for his security card. "He's been shouting his head off, asking for it, ever since Mal Doran left. Funny, he's not in too much pain to raise a ruckus."

He swiped his card and stood to one side as the door slid open to allow her to enter the room. Ba'al had his back to her and the guard stepped back from the door allowing it to close before Ba'al turned around and reacted, something which Jool was grateful for.

"You again!" Ba'al's eyes flashed golden, a sign of his surprise and discomfort at the sight of the bloodthirsty doctor.

"Me again," she confirmed coolly, taking a syringe filled with blue liquid out of her pocket and taking the cap off of the extremely large needle. Raising the syringe to the light, she tapped it a couple of times and then gently depressed the plunger slightly. Liquid spurted from the sharp needle.

"What is that?" Ba'al asked warily.

"Well, it's not your pain medication," Jool told him, her lips twisting in a slight smile at the thought that that was probably the last truth she'd tell for the rest of the interrogation as she moved towards him.

Ba'al backpedalled, "I demand to know what it is!"

She hesitated, "I suppose every dying man deserves a last request," she said with a shrug and watched his eyes glow in panic. "It's a drug that will send you into a deep coma while I perform an autopsy to prove that you're a clone."

"But I am the real Ba'al!" Ba'al protested vehemently, continuing to back away from her.

"To be honest," Jool said confidentially, advancing on him again. "I'm really hoping that you're not. They wouldn't let me perform a living autopsy on the original Ba'al."

"No, wait!" Ba'al futilely commanded. "I am the real Ba'al!"

**l**

"What the hell?" Cam said, dumping the file to one side and coming to his feet in one smooth movement as he stared at the monitors. Distracted, Teal'c and Vala looked up from their armwrestling match.

"I believe it is Doctor Wilson," said Teal'c, rising as Vala gingerly shook her hand.

"What's she doing in there?" Vala asked, getting out of her chair and coming around the table to get a better look at the screen.

"Threatening Ba'al with a really big needle?" Cam suggested doubtfully, and turned on the sound.

"It's worth a try," Vala shrugged.

"No, wait!" Ba'al said as the doctor advanced on him. "I am the real Ba'al!"

"They all say that," she told him, grabbing hold of his arm.

"I can prove it," Ba'al said quickly and she stilled, her eyes narrowing at she stared up him.

"It appears to be a most effective threat," commented Teal'c as the doctor on the screen spoke.

"I'm listening..."

"Merlin's weapon!" Ba'al said, struggling to free himself from her grasp. "The address of Merlin's weapon is one of those that Colonel O'Neill entered into your database when he was under the influence of the Ancient Repository Device."

"Yeah, well it looks like she wasn't the only one who decided to go it alone," Cam said, drawing the others attention to a different screen where Agent Barratt was talking to another Ba'al. "Whoa!" he exclaimed as Barratt punched Ba'al and the two grappled before Ba'al managed to grab his gun and knock him unconscious.

**l**

"I'm not interested in Merlin's weapon," Jool told Ba'al, making a mental note to research the incident... and the Colonel O'Neil he had mentioned. Was he a relative of Jon's? That would explain Jon's familiarity with the SGC. If it wasn't a top secret base. She pushed her thoughts to one side and concentrated on the issue at hand, "How do we find Faith?"

Ba'al gaped at her and all hell broke loose as alarms sounded and an irritating flashing yellow light came to life.

"Well?" she asked, implacable despite the alarm.

"I don't know," Ba'al told her honestly. Did she really think he did?

"Then what do you know?" she asked him, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows questioningly.

**l**

Walter was just waiting for the seventh chevron to slide into place to announce a lock when the alarm started. Automatically, he hit the button that would abort the dialling process and placed his hand on the iris control pad. Standard SGC protocol forbade an active connection while prisoners were on the loose. He turned around to look at the General but he was already halfway up the stairs to the briefing room, with Andrew and O'Neil in hot pursuit.

"What's going on?" Hank puffed as he reached the top of the stairs. He really needed to get back into shape, he reflected. All of these hours spent behind a desk were taking their toll.

"We're losing containment, sir," Cam told him, turning his attention back to the screen.

"Is that Jool?" Andrew piped up from behind General Landry a split second before the screens blinked into static.

"Ah, for cryin' out loud!" Jon exclaimed.

**l**

Glorying in the sound of a successful plan, Ba'al decided that he could afford to be magnanimous in victory. Especially if it kept the doctor distracted with her back to the door. So he told her the truth.

"I know only of your search for her. Imagine, if you will, my surprise when I discovered that for all my... connections, on Earth, the newest SGC team remained a mystery to me. Other than your mission statement and designation, everything else about you was locked away under layers of security that my... associates, could not penetrate," Jool frowned as she noted both of Ba'al's slight hesitations. Suspicion stirred but he continued to talk, "Naturally I was curious and so I decided to request a meeting with you upon my arrival. I never imagined that it would be quite so bloody," Ba'al smiled widely as behind her, the door slid open. At last... the cavalry.

Hearing the noise of the mechanism, Jool spun around in time to register a dark saturnine figure in the doorway before a bolt of blue energy struck her in the chest. Dropping to the floor, she played dead, hoping that they'd be fooled.

Footsteps from the doorway squeaked towards her... but stopped just that little bit too far away. The first Ba'al's boiler suit rustled as he bent down, possibly to peer at her. Jool willed them to believe she was unconscious.

"Fascinating," they both said at the same time and the zat one of them carried chirruped again as another bolt of energy hit Jool.

This time she really did pass out.

**l**

Jon quietly inserted Andrew and himself at the back of SG-1 as they followed General Landry through the corridors, towards Bill Lee's office. Like SG-1, the two members of SG-13 were dressed in heavy combat gear, and heavily armed. Unlike SG-1, it had taken them slightly longer to get changed, as Jo had insisted upon using the main facilities and not the small changing room attached to the armoury on level twenty-eight. That way, no-one could notice what they were up to until it was too late to stop them from joining them. A member of his team had been caught up in the chaos of Ba'al's escape from his cells and Jon had no intention of leaving her to fend for herself.

He forced himself to think logically about the situation. If she was able, the Doc would have either stopped the escape attempt or fought her way out by now. She lived on the base and it was entirely possible that she had learned enough of the unofficial ways of moving about the SGC to be able to sneak past the lines. Even if she hadn't, all she had to do was get to one of the access points and the guards stationed there would have let her through. So, she wasn't able. Whether she was injured, unconscious or worse, he didn't know. He refused to consider the possibility of worse.

What did Ba'al gain by escaping? Freedom of movement about the level that the clones had been imprisoned on. But levels fifteen through seventeen had been locked down, as per SGC protocol, to prevent the prisoners from spreading further. So he couldn't go far and he had shown enough familiarity with the running of the SGC during his imprisonment to know what would happen if he did escape. So it wasn't that. He had prisoners, but it was pure luck that had given him Sam, Barratt and the Doc. And he had to know that the SGC would never trade their freedom for that of his clones.

Jon had had a bad feeling ever since Ba'al had first crashed on Earth and it had only gotten worse as more and more clones had arrived. Ba'al would never allow himself to be captured so easily without an ulterior motive and they had no idea what that ulterior motive might be. They didn't even know if they had the original Ba'al or not! For all they knew, the real Ba'al was out there somewhere, orchestrating the entire thing. And they were entering Bill Lee's office so he'd better start paying attention before they noticed Andrew and he were tagging along.

"What've you got for me?" Jon heard Hank ask the scientist as he filed into the room at the back of the group.

"Uh, well..." Bill Lee said, glancing at his computer screen. "We're thinking our best bet is symbiote poisoning, introduced in gas form into all three levels." Jon smiled slightly at Vala Mal Doran as she glanced curiously at him. "It-it won't harm any of our people, but it will kill any of the Goa'uld who come into contact with it."

"Excellent," Hank told him crisply. "Do it."

"Well, it's-it's not that simple." Bill explained, "You see, we'll have to use the ventilation system to distribute the gas and, eh," he grimaced at his computer, "It's not really designed for that sort of thing."

"What are you saying?" Hank asked him.

"I-I can, uh, run some simulations," Bill said, pointing at the schematics of the ventilation system on his main screen. "And determine the optimum points to seal off the levels and insert the gas, but even at optimum efficiency, it won't be distributed evenly."

"Maybe I can help," a voice offered from the door and Jon turned around, along with the rest of the occupants of the room, to see a pale but determined Oz standing in the doorway.

"Mr Osbourne," Hank said, surprised to see him standing there. "I wasn't aware that you'd been cleared for duty."

"You could check with my doctor," Oz told him, moving into the room to look at Bill's screen. "Oh, wait, I guess you can't," he shrugged.

Jon couldn't stop the snort of laughter that escaped his lips at the werewolf's laid-back sarcasm. Which was a mistake because it drew Hank's attention to him.

"Captain O'Neil, what are you and Mr Wells doing here?" the General demanded to know as, behind him, Oz started up a muttered conversation with Bill Lee, gesturing at the screen.

Jon widened his eyes innocently, "You said 'gear up', sir."

"I was talking to SG-1," Hank told him irritably as Bill started nodding.

"You were?" Jon amped up the innocence a notch. "You didn't say so." Jon could practically hear Hank's teeth grinding.

"Yeah, that would work," Bill was saying to Oz, his fingers practically flying over his keyboard.

Hank turned on the scientist, "What would?"

"Uhh," Bill said swivelling his chair around to face him. He glanced at Oz before continuing, "If we concentrate on level sixteen and assume that-that none of the Ba'als spread any further, then, uh, we shouldn't need as many access points and we might be able to increase the efficiency of the delivery system."

"Great," Hank told him, bestowing a rare smile. "Do that."

"It's not that simple," Bill warned him. "There-there'll still be dead pockets where the gas will take longer before it has any effect."

"All-alright," Mitchell said, interrupting him as Hank started to get frustrated. "So what you're saying is, depending on location, some of the Ba'als may get advance warning, sir," he said to Hank.

"As soon as they realise what's happening, they'll kill the hostages," said Vala, shaking her head.

"Then we must be prepared to provide a distraction at the moment the gas is released," rumbled Teal'c with a slight bow of his head to Hank.

"Go," Hank told them urgently.

Once again, Jon assumed that he was talking to him. "C'mon Oz," he said, jerking his head at the werewolf while he grabbed Andrew.

"Hold it!" Hank ordered, and everyone stopped heading towards the door, turning to face him instead. "You want to take a sick man into a gunfight?" he said to Jon.

"Well, yeah," said Jon. "Oz can sniff out... stuff," he finished lamely, glancing around the scientists that also filled the room

"Good point," Mitchell said to him. He clapped Oz on the shoulder, making the small man stumble slightly. "You're with me," he told him.

"Go," Hank repeated wearily.

"Boytoy, you're with me," Vala said to Jon as they all filed out of the room.

Which meant that Andrew Wells would be accompanying him. Teal'c sighed.

**l**

"Remember, we can't afford to be seen until Doctor Lee gives the signal," Colonel Mitchell ordered from the front of the heavily armed strike force moving through the SGC hallways. Oz struggled to keep up with the pace he was setting.

"Got it," Jon said irreverently from his position next to Vala Mal Doran.

"No improvising this time," Mitchell continued. "We stick to the plan, yes, Vala, I'm talking to you."

"Despite the fact that my improvisations have been extremely useful in the past?" Vala said airily, raising her eyebrows.

"That's your entry point," Mitchell pointed at an access shaft door that Jon was already opening.

**l**

Sam kept her face carefully blank as she was escorted to one of the storerooms on level sixteen. The Ba'al escorting her swiped a security card through the electronic lock and the door slid open. Several Ba'als inside bristled at the intrusion, pointing various weapons at them.

"Bring her," ordered the Ba'al sitting at the computer station, the one who had crash-landed on Earth; Sam noticed the '1' on his overalls and the puffy nose.

The Ba'al who was escorting her roughly shoved her into the room, turning her around and releasing her restraints as the first Ba'al got out of his seat. Sam was led to the vacant seat. Reluctantly, she sat down and stared at the screen, noticing the display requesting an access code.

"The access code... please," said the first Ba'al.

Sam frowned in confusion. "You're trying to download the list of planets that General O'Neill added to the database the first time he had an Ancient Repository downloaded into his mind," she realised. "Why?"

The first Ba'al laughed mockingly, "As if I would tell you. Now, the access code. I won't ask nicely again."

"I won't do it," Sam said stubbornly, resting her hands in her lap.

"This would be an, inappropriate, time for heroics, Colonel," the first Ba'al told her, leaning down so close to her that she could feel his breath crawl over her skin.

"Go ahead and kill me," Sam told him, her flesh crawling. "It's only a matter of time before we regain control of this level. Good luck trying to figure out the code before then."

"I would never dream of killing you," he said. "But I will kill the other hostages." He straightened and turned to one of the other Ba'als crowding the room, "You. Start with... the good Doctor."

The other Ba'al, the seventh captured, Sam noted, smirked and cocked his weapon. Sam's blood ran cold as he turned to a corner of the room and she noticed the unconscious redhead slumped there for the first time. What the heck was Julie Wilson doing here?

"Wait!" she cried as the seventh Ba'al aimed his weapon at the lifeless doctor. She sighed, defeated, "I'll do it."

The Ba'als triumphantly smiled in unison.

**l**

Her knife was gone. So were her other weapons, but it was the loss of her knife that really had Faith pissed. Picking at the food Anise had so thoughtfully provided, she noticed that the Tok'ra even included a full set of cutlery. She quickly pocketed the knife, hoping that Anise wouldn't notice it was missing. Once it was safely hidden away in her mattress, she forced herself to eat the rest of the meal, and told the others to eat theirs. They'd need all their strength to escape from the underground lab. It was a good job they did, because Anise arrived for another round of zat-the-prisoners five minutes later.

**l**

Sam stared tensely at the computer screen as the Ancient addresses downloaded. Behind her, she could hear the first Ba'al pacing.

"What's taking so long?" he wanted to know.

"It's a lot of information," Sam stalled, hoping that he wouldn't guessed that she'd logged on to the SGC's secondary computer system, slowing the download to almost twice its usual speed.

"You did something to slow the download, didn't you?" he accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about," bluffed Sam.

"It's doesn't matter," he scoffed. "You can't stop us anyway. Check the perimeter," he ordered the other Ba'als. "They'll be coming soon."

Left alone with the first Ba'al, a download that was halfway finished, and an unconscious Doctor Wilson, Sam bit her lip. She really hoped they were.

**l**

Out at the front of the strike team, with Colonel Mitchell, Oz stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he smelt the Goa'uld coming towards them. Grabbing hold of Colonel Mitchell's arm, he shook his head and him and drew him back around the corner. He watched in interest as the Colonel produced a small angled mirror attached to a wire, which he poked out around the corner.

Studying it, he frowned, "I'm not seeing anything," he whispered to Oz.

Oz pointed to the mirror and, sure enough, a Ba'al popped round the corner, into the hallway. Oz inhaled deeply as Colonel Mitchell reached for his radio. That way, he decided.

"Teal'c, Vala, we've got a bit of a dead end here," the Colonel said quietly into his radio. Oz touched his arm lightly to attract his attention and then pointed back, the way they had come. "We're gonna have to double-back a bit," he informed the other groups. "You got Carter's twenty?"

"Negative," Teal'c replied in a hushed tone as Oz's group began to make their way back. "We are immobilised."

"Us too," Vala whispered over the radio. "_Now_ can I improvise?"

"No!" hissed Colonel Mitchell into his radio. "Stick to the plan!"

Vala must have held down the transmit button, because her disappointed sigh was audible to everyone.

**l**

It was very difficult to work while General Landry was pacing his lab. Still, hunched frowning over his computer, Bill tried. He just hoped that the General realised how difficult he was making things for him. Somehow he doubted it.

"Doctor?" Landry asked, his voice starting to contain notes of panic as well as stress.

"Any minute," Bill told him with a glance at the clock in the corner of his screen as he proofread the program he had created to adapt the ventilation system. It was the best that he could do in such a short amount of time. He snatched up the radio lying on the desk beside his mouse, "Siler, have you sealed the vent?"

"Almost finished, Doc," Siler's voice floated imperturbably out of the radio, and Bill exchanged a glance with General Landry that almost made him feel like a member of SG-1, instead of Colonel Carter's deputy.

**l**

Sam watched the screen in disgust as the download bar finally crept up to one hundred percent and the words, 'Download Complete' flashed up, despite everything she'd done to slow it down. Where were the others? What was taking them so long? Slowly, she reached out and disconnected the hard drive from the computer only to have it snatched from her hands by Ba'al.

"I'll take that," he said.

"It won't do you any good," Sam told him. "They'll never let you off the base, even if you kill us all."

"Yes, that's what I wanted you to think," Ba'al gloated. "Otherwise, you never would have given me the code."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, confused.

"I knew they would never negotiate," Ba'al said, crouching down beside her. "Not even for you," he stood, putting the hard drive in one pocket and pulling a Beretta out of the other. Sam tensed, waiting for the shot that she was sure would follow. "Fortunately," Ba'al said, "That's not the plan."

She watched him walk out of the room, and, even though she heard him lock it behind him, she still tried the door, kicking it in frustration when it refused to open. She was trapped and she'd just given Ba'al highly sensitive information. Now what was she going to do? Fortunately, she didn't have time to worry about it as, in the corner, Doctor Wilson began to stir.

Sam rushed over to her, "Hey," she said, kneeling beside her. "You okay?"

She groaned and then spoke, "I've been better." Opening her yellow-green eyes, the doctor looked around at their surroundings. "Where are we?"

"Storeroom on level sixteen," Sam told her, making sure to check her pupils. "Can you stand?"

"Of course," she said indignantly but Sam helped her up anyway; a good thing, because she staggered slightly. "What happened?"

**l**

Cam stopped as soon as Osbourne held up his hand. By now, he'd had enough experience of the man's supernatural senses to know that if he said stop, they stopped. So far, although the route they'd taken was a roundabout one, the werewolf had led them always in the same general direction. And, unlike the others, they weren't pinned down. Cam and the SF's with them flattened themselves against the same wall as Osbourne and waited...

Footsteps approached... A Ba'al with a Beretta in hand walked past their hallway without even looking down it... and his footsteps receded into the distance. Cam breathed a sigh of relief and Osbourne stepped out into the intersection, sniffing the air.

"That way," he said, facing the direction the Ba'al had come from.

Cam was past the point of questioning him. Instead, he led the SF's after Osbourne as the short man with blue-black hair trotted down the hallway.

**l**

Sam quickly filled Doctor 'Call-Me-Jool' Wilson in as she searched the shelves in the storage room to find something to cut the cable ties wrapped around her wrists. Finding nothing and realising that the second Ba'al must have taken the knife he use to cut her restraints earlier with him, Sam returned to the redhead only to discover that she had somehow managed to free herself.

"How did you do that?" she wanted to know.

"Faulty restraints?" Jool offered the excuse hopefully, smiling brightly at Colonel Carter as she stared suspiciously at her. Hurriedly, she changed the subject, "So we're locked in?"

"Yep," Sam said gesturing at the door. She remembered why she disliked the woman when she checked the door herself.

"Hmm..." Jool said, studying the door. "Who the bloody hell decided that it would be a good idea to not to put a lock on this side of the door in case someone got locked in?"

"This room _used_ to be a holding cell," Sam explained through gritted teeth. "Besides, the Ba'als took my security card. We wouldn't be able to get out anyway."

**l**

"I don't mean to rush you boys," Vala whispered into her radio, her eyes locked on Captain O'Neil as the cute young Captain peered quickly round the corner of their cover. "But we're about to be discovered here."

"We know you're back there," Ba'al's voice called out.

"So much for the plan," Captain O'Neil said as he popped up and quickly fired off a couple of shots before ducking back down behind cover.

"Time to improvise," Vala agreed, taking her turn to shoot at the Ba'als as the SF's also broke cover to fire on them.

**l**

"Aw, hell," Cam said as he heard the distant gunfire that followed quickly on the heels of Vala's radio message. "Let's move!" he ordered.

**l**

"Five pounds says I can get us out," Jool said, standing back from the door.

"How?" Sam scoffed even as she ran the currency conversion through her mind. At least it wasn't a high risk bet, she reflected.

"Never mind how, do we have a bet?" Jool asked, holding out her hand. After a moment's hesitation, Colonel Carter took it, squeezing her hand in a tight handshake that might have bothered Jool is she wasn't a slayer. Instead, she grinned confidently at the Colonel.

Suddenly she frowned as her sensitive ears picked up a sound in the distance.

"Gunfire," she said, moving closer to the door, her head tilted to one side.

"I don't hear it," the Colonel said, moving to stand by her side.

**l**

"We're ready," Bill announced sitting back from his computer and looking at General Landry for further instructions.

Instructions that Hank was just opening his mouth to give when the radio on the computer desk squawked into life, "We have gunfire! Level sixteen."

Lunging, Hank grabbed the radio just before Bill Lee, "Siler, hit 'em with everything we've got."

"Yes, sir!" Siler replied enthusiastically over the radio.

**l**

The two women in front of the storeroom door jumped back as it suddenly flew open to reveal Colonel Mitchell, Daniel Osbourne and three SFs, all pointing weapons into the room. Although, in Oz's case, it was a simple zat gun that he was aiming. Hastily, the men averted their weapons.

"Are you okay?" Cam asked them with concern in his voice.

"We're fine," Sam answered for the both of them. "What's happening?"

"Teal'c and Vala are providing a distraction while we flood the level with symbiote poison," Cam rapidly brought her up to speed. "With Andrew and O'Neil," he added with a swift glance at Julie Wilson.

"Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c'ss voice came over the radio attached to Cam's chest. "Vala Mal Doran and I have joined forces. It would appear that the Ba'als are retreating into one of the isolation rooms."

Sam frowned worriedly, "All of them together?"

Cam quickly relayed the question to Teal'c and the Jaffa responded immediately, "It would appear so."

"Why?" Cam asked after Teal'c's reply. He got no answer as Sam ran from the room. "Sam?" he called after her and then turned inquiringly to Julie Wilson, who simply shrugged. They all hotfooted it out of the room, following Sam.

At the back of the group, Jool deliberately matched her pace to Oz's. He was pale and sweating and looked as though he was about to collapse. She'd couldn't understand why he had come with Colonel Mitchell until he explained and then she was quietly furious with him for leaving his sickbed. And with Jon for letting him.

The hallways slowly began to fill with drifts of the gas as they hurried through them. Every now and then, they'd come across a Ba'al who had been poisoned by it. They left the bodies where they lay, shrouded in a gassy mist. But there were still plenty of places where the gas had yet to reach and that slowed them down, forcing them to move carefully while they checked for Ba'als that were still alive. They never came across any however, and the sound of gunfire drew ever closer.

It wasn't long before they reached the others, and Jool heard Colonel Mitchell call Colonel Carter's first name as the blonde darted across the open space, past two Ba'als who were in their final death throes and round the corner. Colonel Mitchell followed her, and so did Jon and Andrew. After a moment's indecision, Jool decided to stay with Oz, as he slumped, trembling, down the wall to the floor. But she could still hear what was going on around the corner as she began to administer what little first aid she could to Oz.

"You're too late," Sam told the Ba'als gathered in the isolation room from her position in the doorway. "It's symbiote poisoning."

"You're the one who's too late," the first Ba'al replied as Cam, and a SF joined her in the doorway, followed quickly by Andrew Wells and the General's Clone.

A bright light began to shine in the centre of the Ba'als, spreading outwards. Beside Sam, Andrew Wells made a strange gesture and the Ba'als tumbled into one another, falling even as they were beamed away.

"What the heck did you do that for?" the clone demanded to know in the brief silence that followed.

"It's not my fault," Andrew Wells defended plaintively. "I summon air, not gas."

**l**

Aboard the cloaked Tel'tek in geosynchronous orbit above Colorado, confusion reigned for several moments as Ba'als untangled themselves from Ba'als. It took some time before one Ba'al managed to emerge, victorious, from the rest.

Tugging the awful clothing that had been given him to wear into something resembling neatness, the Ba'al with a '1' on his chest stepped out of the seething mass of clones and approached the Jaffa at the controls of the ship.

"Get us out of here," he ordered, his voice coldly metallic.

With gestures of obeisance (for who wanted to be the one to witness his God sprawling on the floor?) the Jaffa obeyed, and the ship accelerated into hyperspace and away.

**l **

She was getting sick of waking up on the floor, Faith thought groggily. Pushing herself to her feet, she immediately realised that Anise was still standing in the hallway outside. Fuck! How long had she been out?

"Where is the knife?" Anise asked her coldly.

Longer than she thought, obviously. Faith noticed that the empty tray had been removed from her cell. And now that she was noticing stuff, what was with the fugly gold bracelet thingy Anise was wearing?

"Give me the knife!" Anise ordered furiously, her voice deepening into an alien tone.

"Even if I had a knife," Faith said noncommittally. "How could I give it to you?" she lightly touched the forceshield to prove her point, getting an electric shock in the process.

"If you do not produce it immediately, I will be forced to move on to the next phase of tests," warned Anise.

"Don't know whatcha talkin' about," Faith shrugged nonchalantly.

Anise's eyes flashed, a sign of her anger, and she raised the hand with the fugly bracelet on it, palm outwards to reveal a glowing crystal. Faith only had moment, in which she wondered what the bracelet thing **was**, before the pain hit her. She grunted, stumbling back under the onslaught.

"Heightened pain threshold," Anise noted dispassionately into a small device that reminded Faith of a dictaphone. "Now..." she turned her attention back to Faith. "Tell me where the knife is!"

"Fuck you!" Faith told her forcefully.

Anise's eyes narrowed and the pain Faith was experiencing increased ten-fold. Faith staggered and dropped to her knees. It hurt even to breathe but she concentrated on pushing air in and out of her chest, slowly and regularly.

"Give me the knife!" Anise demanded.

Faith gave her the bird instead. The agony reached unbearable levels. Faith blacked out.

**l**

After another night of the full moon, Oz had recovered enough to be allowed to attend the debriefing session in the morning. Jool refused to release him from the infirmary entirely however, and he was under strict instructions to return once the meeting was over. Now though, he sat at the conference table with his team, facing three-quarters of SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran as they all waited for General Landry to arrive.

The atmosphere in the room could only have been cut with a diamond bladed saw. Other than a brief nod to one another, Jon and Teal'c had ignored one another, while Colonel Carter had yet to even look at Oz's team leader, preferring to alternate between reading the file she had brought with her and scowling at Jool. Beside Jon, Jool was oblivious to the blonde Colonel's displeasure, staring down at the highly polished table. Clearly whatever had gone wrong between his two teammates the day that Ba'al arrived still hadn't been resolved. Teal'c had refused to acknowledge Andrew at all, which had upset the young watcher, now sulking at the end of the table: Colonel Mitchell and Jon were maintaining a grudgingly respectful formality: Vala was clearly bored, her head propped on her hand as she stared into the distance; Oz wondered if he was the only person there who didn't have a grudge against someone.

Low voices drifted up from the control room below. A clock ticked. And then the doorhandle to General Landry's office rattled and they all pasted neutral expressions on their faces and straightened, the military officers getting to their feet.

"Good morning, sir," Colonel Mitchell greeted the Commander of the base as he strode into the room.

"Is it?" grunted General Landry. "The President doesn't seem to think so," the room collectively winced. "Neither does the IOA," the General added sourly as he sat down.

Jon bit his lip on the smart-aleck reply that sprang to mind as Carter, Mitchell and he sat down, and the debriefing began in earnest. Rather than ask them to recount, once again, the events leading up to and including yesterday's escape, Hank jumped straight to the important question, "How the hell did he do it?"

Carter leaned forward, "It looks like the locator beacons actually served a dual purpose," she explained. "In close proximity, they combined to amplify the signal, enough to be picked up through our jamming screen."

"That's why he needed us to go and round up the clones," said Vala, aided by the benefit of hindsight. "He was playing us from the start."

"I hate to say I told you so..." Jon said to General Landry.

No he didn't, Hank thought, scowling at the young man, who perversely refused to be cowed. The leader of SG-13 had been tenaciously vocal in his belief that Ba'al had had an ulterior motive, even though he hadn't been able to say what that motive might be.

"This was all so he could get his hands on that list of planets," Mitchell said quickly, trying to smooth things over.

"You mean Merlin's weapon," Vala reminded him as Sam picked up a sheaf of papers. Sam froze.

Sam froze. "What?" she asked, her eyes dropping to the papers she held in her hands.

"Ba'al informed Doctor Wilson that Merlin's weapon was located on one of the planets on the list of Ancient planets during her interrogation of him," Teal'c informed her, one eyebrow arching slightly.

"Didn't you read my report?" Jool asked her.

"I haven't had time," Sam told her, stuffing the copies of her report on Ba'al's possible reasons for wanting the list back into the folder she had brought to the meeting. She'd been too busy extrapolating possibilities from the little they knew of the Ancient planets on the list. To rub salt in the wound, the possibility of Merlin's weapon being on one of the planets on the list had never even crossed her mind.

"Can I get a copy of the footage?" General O'Neill's clone requested and Sam made a mental note to take a look at it herself.

"Wouldn't you rather have the one of have Jool breaking his nose?" Vala asked him curiously as Cam surreptitiously passed Sam a copy of Jool's report.

"I've already got it," said the clone as Sam began to quickly read the report and she could hear his grin in his voice.

"This is getting us nowhere people," General Landry told them gruffly. "The IOA wants to know what we're going to do about tracking Ba'al down and getting that list back."

"The tracking device we took from Ba'al's al'kesh still works," Sam looked up from the report to say. "But there's no way to tell him apart from the clones and-"

"Yes there is," Jool interrupted her. Everyone stared at her and she could feel a slight blush burning her cheeks, "I'm sure I mentioned it."

"Mentioned what?" Jon asked her, his voice dripping with sickening pleasantry.

"I set his nose crooked," Jool said, her eyes wide as she stared around at them. "I'm _sure_ I told you during the debriefing..."

She hadn't, but Hank wasn't going to argue with the woman who'd just handed him a way to tell Ba'al from his clones. "Why?" he wondered.

She shrugged, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. If he really _was_ the real Ba'al then we needed a way to identify him and I'd just broken his nose..." she flushed, no doubt remembering the tongue-lashing he'd given her for that particular stunt, and trailed off awkwardly, staring down at the table.

"He took a great risk," Teal'c said ponderously and Jon sat up and paid attention, wondering where he was going with this. "It was only because Agent Barratt violated protocol that he was afforded the opportunity to escape the interrogation room."

"And that was the reason he was able to get all the clones in one place so they could beam out," said Mitchell.

"So if he planned the whole thing in advance, how did he know what Barratt was going to do?" asked Jon.

**l**

Every part of her body ached. Her brain felt like someone had scrambled it with a whisk and then set off a nuclear bomb inside her skull. Her bottom lip trembled slightly and then was ruthlessly brought back under her control. Someone laid a wet cloth on her forehead and she relaxed as the pain began to ebb away.

"Take it easy, kid," a voice from the Bronx said softly and Faith's eyes snapped open, focussing on the shabbily dressed demon standing beside her bed.

"Whistler."


	16. Marking Time

**Marking Time**

Every part of her body ached. Her brain felt like someone had scrambled it with a whisk and then set off a nuclear bomb inside her skull. Her bottom lip trembled slightly and then was ruthlessly brought back under her control. Someone laid a wet cloth on her forehead and she relaxed as the pain began to ebb away.

"Take it easy, kid," a voice from the Bronx said softly and Faith's eyes snapped open, focussing on the shabbily dressed demon standing beside her bed.

"Whistler," she recognised him immediately, despite never having met him.

"That's me," the balance demon confirmed, looking concerned as Faith pulled the cloth off her forehead and rolled out of bed to face him. "You sure you should be getting up?"

Ignoring him, Faith crossed to the forcefield keeping her in the prison. Still working, she confirmed, touching it with a finger.

"I mean," continued Whistler. "You don't look so good. Not that anyone could make _that_ particular outfit look good," he gestured at her BDU's with an expression of disgust.

"Mallie?" Faith called, her back to him. "Kay! Ny!"

"They can't hear us," Whistler told her. "It's just you and me, kid."

That finally got a reaction out of Faith. Whirling around, she demanded, "Why me?" Prowling towards the hapless demon, she snarled, "Why not send B?"

Whistler gulped, glancing over his shoulder to gauge how much distance he had as he backed away from the enraged slayer. Why did they always send him to talk to the dangerous ones?

"Because she'd fail," he told her honestly. "You really think the Cheerleader could lead these kids? C'mon! The Powers spent too many years moulding you into the perfect person to teach them what they need to know to survive to screw things up by-" Abruptly, Whistler stopped talking, all too aware that he'd just said too much and consequently endangered his future existence. His back hit the wall.

"What?" asked Faith, her voice deadly quiet and her face bone white.

"Ah..." Whistler nervously ran a finger along his collar. "I mean, ah, the Cheerleader wouldn't have lasted one hour in a tent and you know it." Faith flinched. Yeah, B woulda sweet-talked her way into actual rooms for them all, but dammit, she'd done the best she could! "Come to that," Whistler continued regardless of Faith's self-flagellation. "She wouldn't have stepped foot off Earth without her friends, make-up bag, and a guaranteed way home and that would have mucked everything up. No, it had to be you. Besides, the Powers thought you might actually want a chance at redemption."

Faith grabbed him by the throat and shook him. "How the fuck am I meant to redeem myself teaching innocent girls to murder people?" she screamed. "Tell me!"

Whistler choked incoherently.

Faith released him, flinging herself away to pace her cell, "So I get to earn my redemption by leading a buncha slayers into losing theirs? Very fucking righteous! No wonder you needed me! B wouldn't have the stomach for it. These girls need a watcher dammit! Not a killer." She stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Whistler as a thought occurred to her, "The Powers _moulded _me?"

Wisely, Whistler disappeared. After all, the Powers hadn't told him when he had to deliver his message, only that he had to. He'd come back later. When it wasn't so hazardous to his health.

"Whistler!" Faith yelled. "Come back here you yellow-bellied son-of-a-bitch, or I swear, I'm gonna rip out your liver and make you eat it!"

"Faith?" Nya's shocked voice came from further down the hallway.

**l**

With one last look at the cart rapidly receding into the distance, Daniel turned back to the Stargate with a sigh. His gaze immediately fell on the crate full of books, resting to one side of the Stargate. Pushing his glasses up his nose, he sighed again and moved towards to DHD. It had been difficult enough to persuade the carters to drive him here, despite Governor Meurik's backing. Convincing them to stay while "Merlin's Ring" was activated had proven impossible. Wondering how he was going to get the crate through the Stargate on his own, Daniel hit the last glyph of Earth's address and watched the event horizon explode outwards. He began to type his code into the GDO he wore on his wrist.

"Doctor Jackson!" a breathless voice called behind him and he turned to see who it was. "Doctor Jackson!" the familiar girl running towards him called again. She skidded to a halt in front of him, the large black backpack she wore bobbing on its straps, "Thank goodness I caught you!" her eyes were wide as she stared above his shoulder, at the rippling Stargate behind him.

"Oh," said Daniel, surprised to see a local who would voluntarily venture so close to the Stargate. "Um... hi. Valencia," he hastily tacked on the end, remembering the girl's name. He pushed his glasses further up his nose and blinked. "What's wrong?"

Valencia tore her eyes away from the Stargate and focussed on him, "Nothing," she said, sliding the backpacks straps from her shoulders. "I was afraid I would miss you again."

"Again?" Daniel asked curiously.

Valencia nodded, "I was hunting with the men the last time you and the Colonels returned. This time I was training them in the forests. When word reached us that you had returned again, I set off at once."

"Why?" wondered Daniel, baffled as to why she would go to so much effort.

"Faith left this behind," Valencia told him, handing him the backpack. Daniel's arm dropped like a stone as soon as he took the weight of the bag. "I was afraid that it might be important so I took it from Merlin's Chamber to prevent it from being removed with his treasure. I meant to return it if you ever came back but," she blushed slightly, dropping her head. "I was away."

"Uh, thanks," said Daniel, hefting the backpack over one shoulder. He glanced over the other at the open Stargate. He really had to go. As if on cue, his radio squawked into life.

"Doctor Jackson, are you alright?" General Landry asked.

"I'm fine," Daniel replied into his radio. "Give me a minute," he told the General, thinking wryly of the crate of books. An idea occurred and he looked up at Valencia. "I don't suppose you could give me a hand?" he asked her, gesturing towards the crate.

She smiled widely, "Of course."

**l**

Just to make a crappy day even worse, Anise showed up shortly after Whistler had left. Faith was sitting on the floor, her back to the wall and her head in her hands, fighting off the headache from her last encounter with the crazed alien scientist and wearily fending off questions from the peanut gallery when she heard the footsteps in the distance.

"Faith," warned Kay.

"I hear her," said Faith, struggling to her feet. "On your feet, guys. Showtime!"

As usual, Anise appeared from the right, ignoring Kay completely and walking directly to Faith's cell. As usual she was carrying a zat'nik'tel but this time, Kay noticed, she was also wearing a hand device.

"Shit," she exclaimed softly, her eyes on the gaudy piece of technology wrapped around Anise's wrist. "Faith..."

"Got it," Faith replied as Anise passed from the front of Kay's cell to Faith's.

"What is it?" Mallie wanted to know.

"Quiet!" Anise commanded in a metallic voice. Her eyes flashed as she looked Faith in the eye. "I will give you one last chance to return the knife to me before I proceed with the next phase of testing," she offered Faith in more human-sounding tones. "Pain resistance," she elaborated, bringing her hand up and spreading her fingers wide to display the Goa'uld device she wore.

"I'm ready for another go round if you are," Faith told her, preparing herself for another attack by loosening her posture.

"Very well," Anise said. She turned to the right and began to walk away.

"What are you doing?" Faith asked, panicked.

"Establishing a similar baseline for the other subjects," Anise replied calmly, continuing to walk away. "Unless you have something to add to the discussion."

Faith stared at her, hating her more than any other person in the galaxy, "Yes," she ground out through gritted teeth, giving up. "Stop. I'll get the fucking knife."

"There," said Anise, returning to her original position in the centre of the stretch of corridor that bordered Faith's cell. "You see how easy it is?" Faith snarled at her as she pulled the knife out of its hiding place in her mattress. "If only you would be as co-operative in other areas it wouldn't be necessary to-"

"Just fucking zat me already!" Faith interrupted belligerently.

Anise obliged.

**l**

"Welcome back, Doctor Jackson," General Landry greeted the archaeologist as he seated himself at the head of the table. "How was Camelot?"

"Good," Daniel told him. "Quiet." So quiet, he'd even found himself missing Vala. "I saw Valencia before I came back. She gave me Faith's backpack," he rested his hand on the large backpack he'd brought into the briefing room with him.

Hank had wondered why it was there but showed no outward sign of it. Instead, he asked, "Any luck finding the location of Merlin's weapon?"

"Not yet," Daniel admitted. "But I did find a couple of references to Merlin's library at Avalon. I'd like to go back to England and take another look at the artefacts recovered from the cave. See if there's anything we missed first time."

"We'll need to get permission from the British government for that. I'll speak to the IOA," Hank promised him with a grimace. "In the meantime, we had a breakthrough of our own while you were away."

"Really?"

"Mmm..." said Hank. "Ba'al stopped by to pay us a visit and stole the Stargate addresses that General O'Neill added to the database when he was possessed by the Ancient Repository. He seems to think that Merlin's weapon is located on one of those planets."

"But there are hundreds of addresses on that list," Daniel told him.

"Tell me something I don't know," Hank said dryly.

**l**

Jool hovered in the doorway to Colonel Carter's office, watching the other woman stare at her computer screen. The sound was turned down low, but Jool could hear every word of her confrontation with Ba'al and it was enough to make her cringe. Reluctant to disturb her, Jool turned to go and her boot scraped against the floor. Instantly, Colonel Crater paused the recording, looking up. Jool smiled weakly at her.

"Hi," she said awkwardly. "Sorry to disturb you."

"Don't worry about it," Sam told her, waving her into the room. "What's up?"

"It's just..." Jool said. "I've been meaning to say... since I read your report... Thank you."

"What for?" Sam asked her, confused.

"Saving my life," Jool told her. She frowned when Colonel Carter continued to look confused, "When Ba'al threatened to kill me?"

"Oh, that!" Sam said, surprised. She would have done the same for anyone else, after all. "No problem. Don't mention it."

To avoid looking at the redhaired woman's intense yellow gaze, Sam glanced away. Looking straight at her computer monitor, where the same redhaired woman was easily subduing Ba'al with one hand. "Jool," she said slowly, looking up at the other woman as various pieces of a puzzle clicked into place. "Are you a slayer?"

Jool grinned, "Yes."

**l**

His eyes trained on the contents of the folder General Landry had given him, Daniel wandered through the SGC hallways on autopilot, his feet automatically taking him towards his office. The folder contained the list of Ancient planets that Ba'al had stolen, and all the information the SGC had gathered on those planets in almost eight years. It wasn't enough, he mused to himself. They had barely managed to visit a fraction of the planets, although probes had been sent to a few more. More probes were being sent now and General Landry had put in a request for more to be delivered to them. But Daniel firmly believed that it wouldn't-

"Daniel," a voice penetrated his abstraction.

"Ja-" Daniel automatically started to reply before warning bells rang. The inflection was right, but the voice was off. His head whipped around to spot the young man walking down the hallway, a much shorter man chattering away to him. "Jon?" he said disbelievingly as they disappeared around a corner.

**l**

Sam stared at Jool in shock, her mouth hanging open, "They teach demon biology at Oxford?" she asked incredulously.

Jool burst into giggles, her eyes dancing merrily as Daniel appeared in the doorway.

"Sam, why is Jack's cl-" Daniel stopped talking abruptly as he registered the presence of a stranger in Sam's office. "Uh, hi," he said.

"Daniel!" Sam smiled widely at him. "When did you get back?"

"Just now," Daniel told her with a sideways look at the redhead sat in front of her.

Sam belatedly remembered her manners, "This is Doctor Wilson of SG-13," she introduced Daniel to Jool. "She's a slayer. Jool, this is Daniel Jackson."

"Pleased to meet you," Jool said with a smile, standing and offering Daniel her hand. "Don't tell anyone about the slayer thing," she lowered her voice conspiratorially as they shook hands. "It's supposed to be a secret."

"Uh, okay," Daniel said, pushing his glasses up. "SG-13?" he frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be in a briefing?"

"Am I?" Doctor Wilson's peridot eyes widened. "Since when?"

Walter's voice floated out of the tannoy system, "Doctor Wilson to the briefing room. Doctor Wilson to the briefing room."

"Since now, apparently," said Sam, amusement warming her voice.

"No-one ever tells me anything," Doctor Wilson grumbled with a smile as she left Sam's office.

"She's English," Daniel remarked to Sam as he shut the door.

"Yeah," said Sam. "She studied demon biology at Oxford."

"Oxford University teaches demon biology?" Daniel allowed himself to be diverted briefly.

"Apparently," Sam said with a smile.

Daniel's smile disappeared as he sat down at the table in Sam's lab. "Sam," he said seriously. "What's Jack's clone doing here?"

"Oh," said Sam, getting up from her desk. "You've seen him."

"Yeah," Daniel said as she took a seat at the table opposite him. "What's going on?"

"Captain Jonathon O'Neil, one 'l'," Sam shared a wry look with her teammate, "Is the new leader of SG-13."

"The team set up by Buffy Summers to search for Faith?" Daniel had to double-check.

"Yep," said Sam succinctly; she'd had more time to get used to the news.

"Wonder how Jack managed to swing that," mused Daniel.

Sam shrugged, "The General isn't returning my calls," she told him. "I've left messages."

Ten years and she was still calling Jack by his rank. Daniel wondered if they would ever admit their feelings for one another as he asked, "What about the mission file?"

"Still classified," Sam told him. "And those who know aren't talking for once."

"Does Mitchell know?" Daniel asked.

"No."

"General Landry?"

"Nope."

"Damn!" uncharacteristically, Daniel swore.

Sam nodded. "Yep," she agreed.

**l**

Jon found himself wondering whose bright idea it had been to put a clock in the briefing room when all it did was drive everyone crazy with its ticking. After over a month, he was starting to get used to his team. Andrew, currently raving over Johnny Depp's performance in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, was the enthusiastic one: Oz, wearily listening to Andrew's gushing, was the monosyllabic one: and the Doc was the late one; how it was possible for a person who lived on the base to show up late for every briefing he didn't know. At the head of the table, Hank was sitting in a brooding silence. So far, no-one had mentioned the large backpack on the table.

"Sorry!" the Doc apologised, cringing as she rushed into the room. "Sorry. I didn't know there was a briefing," her gaze settled on the backpack as she sat down and she asked curiously, "What's that?"

"It's Faith's," Oz said as Hank opened his mouth to speak.

"Really?" asked Andrew, perking up.

"Where did you get it?" Jon asked Hank.

"Doctor Jackson brought it back with him from Camelot," Hank told him stiffly. "Captain."

"What do we do with it?" the Doc asked.

"Open it!" Andrew suggested eagerly. Everyone looked at Hank.

"Don't look at me," he blustered. "I just work here. It's your job to deal with anything to do with Faith."

"So..." Oz said as his teammates all tried to look at each other at once. "We open it?"

Jon's brown eyes met Oz's blue. "We open it," Jon decided. "Doc?"

"Why does Jool get to do it?" whined Andrew as she pulled the backpack towards her.

"Because she's female," Jon snapped at him and Andrew subsided, crushed, as the Doc opened the backpack.

**l**

At least her headache was gone when she woke up, even if the rest of her problems weren't. Locked in a cell? Check. Responsible for three other slayers, also locked up? Check. Lost somewhere in the galaxy with no clue how to get home? Definitely check. Her life sucked more than vampires.

Okay, that was it. If she was conscious enough to make B-worthy puns, she was conscious enough to get up. Faith levered her eyelids open and pushed herself up off the floor with limbs that were numb. Only to flop back down onto the floor when she realised that she had nowhere to go.

Anise had provided a tray of food as normal. Staring, Faith could feel an unbearable rage building deep in her chest. How fucked up was it that she considered anything in this screwed-up situation _normal_! Growling deep in her throat, Faith swiped at the tray, sending it clattering across the floor to bounce off the forcefield keeping her imprisoned, the contents flying in all directions.

It wasn't enough.

With an animalistic roar, Faith erupted to her feet and set about systematically destroying everything in her cell. Sometime in the middle of ripping her bed apart, Faith realised that she was screeching obscenities at the top of her lungs. She didn't care.

She ran out of furniture to destroy long before she ran out of aggression. Clenching her fists tightly, she tipped her head back, swaying as she stood in the middle of the wreckage of her cell, and screamed at the ceiling.

Collapsing to the floor, the Dark Slayer wept.

**l**

"Okay," Jon said, looking the possessions stacked in neat piles on the briefing room. At least the Doc had had the taste to stuff the more feminine items out of sight. "What have we learned?"

"She's got her knife?" Andrew offered hopefully.

"And precious little else!" the Doc said bitterly, her eyes on the meagre piles.

"Huh. These are dead," Oz commented, inspecting Faith's IPod and phone.

"We've got the chargers," the Doc reminded him. She frowned, "Both of them?"

"Weird," agreed Oz, nodding at her.

"Why?" asked Hank.

"Well, why didn't Faith turn her IPod off?" she asked.

"Maybe the battery ran out before she left Earth," Andrew suggested.

"Maybe..." the Doc said doubtfully.

"All this stuff's got someone else's scent on it," Oz told them, gesturing at the table.

"What?" exclaimed Jon. "Whose?"

Oz's nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. "Some girl's," he shrugged. "Don't recognise it."

"Valencia," Hank told them, clasping his hands together on the table in front of him. "The native who returned the bag to Doctor Jackson."

"So... she opened Faith's bag and went through her stuff why?" Andrew asked him.

"Curiosity?" offered Jon. "It has been known to kill cats."

"More importantly," said the Doc. "What do we do with all of this now?"

Jon reached out and picked up one of the first items that had come out of Faith's backpack, turning the creased envelope with the logo of a motel chain and a B scrawled on the front over in his hands. It was strange how seeing Faith's belongings spread out on the briefing room table finally made her seem like a real person. He'd never met her, only seen two pictures of her; and his team weren't exactly falling over themselves to tell stories about her. Why was she so important to Buffy Summers? And why was Faith's title the Dark Slayer? These were things, Jon realised, that he needed to know.

He'd been too wrapped up in the emotions stirred up by his return to the SGC – in trying to mould his new team into a second SG-1. But SG-1 still existed and he wasn't Jack O'Neill, even if he had his memories. SG-13 was there on sufferance, at the President and the IOA's insistence, to bring Faith-

"Are you sure we can't open it?" whined Andrew, his eyes on the envelope Jon held.

"No!" Jon told him. "I mean, yes," he tossed the envelope onto the table. "Pack it up," he said. "We'll send it to Buffy."

Andrew pouted but the Doc immediately began to neatly pack all of Faith's belongings away. It was clear it wasn't going to take long. Jon winced. He'd lived out of a bag far too often not to recognise the signs of someone doing the same. How old was Faith? The eyes of the woman in the photos he'd seen were old, but her face was young.

He turned to Hank before the Doc had finished in an effort to distract himself, "So when are we going to try dialling Kelowna again, sir?"

"You've got a slot scheduled for fourteen hundred," Hank told him. He turned to the Doc, "I presume Mr Osbourne is fit to resume work?"

"Oh, yes," said the Doc, fastening Faith's backpack. "I discharged him earlier."

**l**

Vala was rooting through the crate of books he had brought back from Camelot. The lithe brunette was bent right over, her pert posterior waving in the air as she dug through the crate. His irritation rising, Daniel entered his office.

"Vala..." he sighed.

She straightened, spinning around to face him. "Daniel!" she said with a wide smile. "I heard you were back..."

"What are you doing?" Daniel asked wearily.

"Well, you weren't here," Vala told him. "And I was bored and then two lovely airmen delivered this crate and I thought; I know! I'll unpack it for you and then you'll be even more pleased to see me than you were," she smiled perkily at him.

"You were looking for treasure, weren't you?" Daniel sighed, taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Maybe a little," Vala admitted sheepishly.

**l**

Cam watched as Walter entered the dialling sequence for Kelowna. In the Gateroom below, SG-13 fidgeted as they waited to leave Earth. It looked like Andrew Wells was doing some last minute reading on Kelowna, clutching a fistful of papers. Cam really hoped he wasn't planning on taking them off-world. Ah, nope... Captain O'Neil had taken them off him, with a light cuff to the back of the head and was handing them to one of the airmen stationed to guard the room. God, he hoped they found her!

The Stargate activated with a kawoosh and General Landry leaned forward over the microphone, "Kelowna, this is Stargate Command," he said.

General Landry glanced back as the silence on the other end stretched, his eyes meeting Cam's. Cam could feel his stomach sinking with every second that passed as the General turned back to the microphone.

"Kelowna, please respond," General Landry requested.

Nothing. Cam inched forward. Sir," he said. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

In the Gateroom SG-13 had quietened down, staring up at the control room with anxious faces as they waited for the order to go. General Landry looked at Walter.

"Send the MALP through,"

"Yes, sir," Walter said.

Cam kept his eyes on the camera feed from the MALP as it trundled up the ramp and disappeared, the picture turning to static as the camera entered the Stargate. Long seconds passed before it reformed, the camera shaking wildly as the MALP came under fire.

"Whoa!" Cam exclaimed, catching sight of something before the feed disappeared. "Can you play that back?" he asked a technician as General Landry ordered Walter to shut off the Stargate.

"What is it?" General Landry asked as the technician obliged.

"Pause it," Cam told the technician.

"Are they using Ori staff weapons?" General Landry asked incredulously.

"That's not all, sir," Cam told him. He pointed to a corner of the screen, "See there?"

"That's a Prior," General Landry said, and his voice was filled with dread.

Entering the room with his team just behind him, Jon was just in time to hear this last statement.

"Aw, crap!"

**l**

By the time the others woke up from their zat-induced comas, Faith once again had herself under control. She'd begun to tidy up the ruins of the furniture she'd destroyed, salvaging her mattress and sheets from the debris of her bed and spreading them on the floor so that she had somewhere to sleep later. She was pretty sure that the toilet gadget thing was dead though.

It was while she was stacking the pieces of her bed in one corner of the room that Faith had a moment of revelation so clear and strong that she dropped the metal parts that she was carrying. The racket they made as they hit the crystal floor sparked a round of frantic questions, but Faith ignored them, holding on to the thread of thought that led back to her realisation.

"I'm fine!" she snapped as the questions reached a crescendo. The others subsided, perhaps realising that she had more important things on her mind. More likely, they didn't want to be verbally flayed for continuing to pester her.

Faith stared at the pile of bed parts, the germ of an idea burgeoning in her mind. Anise might have taken the knife from her but she hadn't removed everything metal from her cell. A bed was a pretty standard design, no matter where you went in the galaxy and this bed was no exception. And it was made out of metal.

The slats on which the mattress normally sat were thin metal rods. Faith picked one up and studied it carefully, turning it over in her hands. It was flimsy, she could easily tie it into a knot if she wanted to, but it might be enough. Experimentally, she slammed it into the wall.

It crunched through the indigo crystal and buried itself inches deep into whatever was beyond it. Getting it out without damaging the wall further was more difficult. Sand trickled out of the hole and onto the floor for a moment. Faith scuffed it into the floor.

Now she just had to hope that Anise would be too shocked by the state of her cell to notice one small hole in the wall. And that she replaced the toilet at least.

Feeling more positive than she had in days, Faith dropped the metal bar, scraping the pile of metal closer together with her foot and turning to face the forceshield that was all that was keeping her from freedom and her slayers.

"Okay!" she called out. "First one to two thousand push-ups gets to ask me a question about Earth."

**l**

Dinner that night was excellent. Obviously Andrew was still upset about their mission being cancelled. Consequently, the usually terrible meals provided by the SGC kitchens were replaced by a choice of either boeuf bourguignon, spaghetti meatballs with Andrew's special sauce or beer-battered cod and chips with either a crème brulee or an individual tower of profiteroles for dessert. It was the best meal Jool had had since she had arrived at the SGC and she was heartily enjoying it until a shadow fell across her table. Looking up, she smiled at Caroline Lam.

"Got a minute?" the Chief Medical Officer of the SGC asked her.

"Of course," Jool told her, gesturing to the seat opposite her. "What's the matter?"

Caroline waited until she was seated before she spoke, "Did you certify Daniel Osbourne as fit to return to work this morning?"

"Yep!" Jool said brightly. "First thing."

"You can't do that without my authorisation," Caroline told her.

"Sorry," Jool apologise. "I didn't know. You can authorise it now, right? No big deal."

"It is a big deal," Caroline told her. "Oz needs sick leave to recuperate..."

"No he doesn't."

"Yes he does."

"Why?" Jool asked. "He's perfectly healthy since the full moon..."

"A number of reasons," said Caroline. "Time to recover from the psychological trauma, the fact that everyone else affected by the canine plague is currently off with at least two weeks sick leave..."

"I'm not," pointed out Jool.

"But you should be," Caroline told her. "Look, I know that you need to blend in while you're here so I'm signing the whole of SG-13 off for two weeks. You and Oz shouldn't be here anyway and Captain O'Neil and Andrew have barely left the base since Oz was brought in."

"You can't do that," Jool said urgently. "Caroline, we need to plan how we're going to get to Kelowna before Faith moves on. Three days sick leave."

"Ten," bartered Doctor Lam.

"Five," Jool countered.

"Seven."

"Done!" Jool agreed and they shook on it. Looking down at her plate, Jool heaved a big sigh. "I guess I'll just finish my dinner and shuffle off to my room for the night. God knows how I'm going to keep myself occupied for a week."

"You could try looking for a house to move into," Caroline suggested, stealing one of Jool's chips.

"It'd help if I could drive to work first," Jool pointed out, defending the rest of the chips on her plate with her fork. "I don't suppose you could give me a couple of le-"

"No!" refused Caroline, remembering what had happened on Jool's one and only driving lesson to date.

"I'm not that bad," Jool protested.

"You are," Caroline told her.

Jool poked her tongue out at her boss and the two of them burst into giggles. Caroline took advantage of Jool's distraction to steal a few more chips and Jool protested half-heartedly. Caroline forgot about meals too often, she thought to herself, oblivious to the fact that she herself kept a large supply of sweets hidden in her room and office for the occasions when she too forgot to eat. Her eyes flickered to the door as another late-working SGC member came in for their meal and then dropped back down to the table.

"Looking for someone?" Caroline asked casually. Too casually. Her new boss-cum-friend had been quietly determined to discover if Jool was interested in any of the men stationed at the base. It seemed as though Caroline liked to play the matchmaker in her spare time. Jool got the distinct feeling that if she didn't declare a preference soon, Caroline would find one for her.

"Just wondering where Vala is," Jool told her. "I haven't seen her since this morning. SG-1 aren't off-world, are they?"

"No, but you probably won't be seeing much of her from now on," Caroline informed her. "Doctor Jackson's back from Camelot," she added when Jool looked confused. "Vala's probably busy propositioning him right now."

"Meow!" Jool exclaimed and Caroline flushed slightly. "I know you don't like Vala much, but she's not that bad."

"Oh, she really is," Caroline told her, getting up. "I'd better get back to the infirmary. Remember! I don't want to see you there for a week."

Jool sighed, "I remember."

Watching Caroline go, Jool wondered what she would do with a week off. Ever since she had moved into the base, her days had revolved around a combination of the infirmary and her team, with the occasional trip off-world and rarer trips to the surface. Now she would have to find a way to occupy herself that had nothing to do with the base she lived on. Tricky...

**l**

Faith tried very hard not to grin at Anise's face when the Tok'ra saw the pile of scrap metal cluttering up Faith's cell. The dark-haired scientist looked as though she'd just seen her first vampire rise from the grave. Faith smirked as Anise remained speechless.

"The toilet died too," she told Anise, jerking her thumb at the alien contraption that lay in several pieces next to the ruins of her bed.

"What...?" Anise managed to say. "Why?"

"Got bored," Faith told her with a shrug.

She had refused to stand up for her captor and lay on her mattress, her back propped up against the wall and her legs crossed at the ankle. Now though, she stood, a shit-eating grin spreading across her face. "Hey," she said. "As long as we're here, any chance of a shower?" she sniffed the collar of her jacket and grimaced. "I'm starting to smell like shit."

When she woke up Anise had thrown a bucket of water over her. She'd also replaced the bed and toilet.

**l**

"Hi, it's me... um, Jool. Uh, just to let you know, there's no point coming in tomorrow, or, um, today if you're getting this in the morning. Caroline's signed us all off sick for a week... I guess that's it. Uh, bye."

The message ended with click as the Doc hung up and Jon's answering machine announced the end of his messages. Still in the boxers he'd slept in, Jon deleted his only message and swung towards his bedroom to pick up his cell phone and find out what the hell was going on. Why was SG-13 getting sick leave now?

**l**

SG-1 waited in the briefing room for General Landry to join them. The meeting had been scheduled to start five minutes ago but the General was still in his office, arguing loudly with someone on the phone. The teammates carefully avoided each other's gaze as they all tried to look as though they weren't eavesdropping. All except Vala that is, who was clearly listening avidly.

"For the last time, Captain," General Landry's exasperated voice drifted clearly out of his office. "No!"

The crash of the telephone hitting the receiver echoed into the briefing room and General Landry entered the room. Cam and Sam got to their feet, only sitting back down once the General had seated himself.

"Problem, sir?" Cam asked him.

"Nothing I can't handle," Landry told him tersely. "Now... how goes the exploration of the planets on the Ancient repository list?"

"Slowly, sir," Sam reported. "We've barely managed to cover a fraction of the planets on the list."

"We need more UAV's, sir," said Cam. "Our supply is starting to run low."

"I've put in an order," General Landry told him. "They should arrive sometime next Tuesday. Doctor Jackson, any luck eliminating some of the planets?"

Daniel shook his head, "Not yet, sir. The problem is that we don't actually know what Merlin's weapon looks like. Without knowing that, it's almost impossible to rule any planet out."

"We know that it's a small ball about so big," Vala pointed out, measuring a gap between her thumb and forefinger.

"Yes," Daniel said with exasperation, "But trying to find something the size of a ping pong ball on a planet would be like... like..."

"Attempting to discover a needle within a haystack?" suggested Teal'c.

"Exactly!" Daniel said triumphantly. Teal'c's words sunk in and he stared at the Jaffa with open-mouthed surprise. Teal'c's grasp of colloquialisms had certainly improved over the years, he thought to himself. Teal'c smirked slightly at him, looking pleased with himself.

"Why would anyone want to find a needle in a haystack?" Vala asked, confused.

Daniel ignored her, "The point is that I need more information. General, has there been any word from the British government?"

"Yes," General landry told him. "They've given you permission to examine the treasure retrieved from Avalon."

Vala perked up, "I'll help!" she volunteered.

"No!" General Landry and Daniel spoke at the same time.

"They've restricted access to just Doctor Jackson," Hank lied to her. Better that than risk an international incident. Vala pouted but dropped the subject. Hank hesitated before he brought up the next topic, glancing at Colonel Mitchell, "While you're in England," he said to Doctor Jackson. "I need you to deliver a package to the Watchers Council."

Cam's ears pricked up at the mention of the Watchers Council and he wondered what General Landry needed delivering there. He didn't have long to wait to find out.

"Faith's bag?" Daniel double-checked and General Landry nodded at him.

"What bag?" Cam asked, frowning.

"Ooh, I know!" said Vala. "Daniel brought Faith's bag back from Camelot, right? And it had a letter to someone called Buffy!"

Cam stared at her, wondering how it was that she was always more informed than him. And he was supposed to be the second-in-command at the base.

"I told you," Jackson said to him with a confused frown.

"Uh," said Sam. "You told us," she glanced at Teal'c.

"Twice," the large Jaffa added.

"Oh," Daniel grimaced at Mitchell in apology.

"Who names their child Buffy?" Vala asked them.

"I believe it was her mother," Teal'c deadpanned.

"People!" said General Landry, attracting their attention. "We're getting off topic."

Suitably chastised, SG-1, and their probationary member, turned their focus to the tricky problem of fighting a superiorly armed enemy whilst simultaneously searching for a weapon that would destroy their power base. Most of the points raised in the discussion were ones which had been mentioned before; at this point all they could really do was watch, wait and react. In the end the only thing that was resolved was that they would continue to do what they were doing. The meeting ended, they began to gather up their things, only to be stopped by General Landry.

"One last thing," he said to them and they stopped to see what he had to say. "You all work too hard," he told them. Colonel Mitchell opened his mouth to speak and Hank cut him off, "And don't try and tell me that you don't, because you know you do. So I've decided to give you all an enforced leave of absence, starting Friday."

"What?" said Carter. "Why?"

"Because you work too damn hard," Hank told her. "To make sure you take it, and don't spend your time thinking of ways to sneak back on base to work on your various projects," Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson promptly looked guilty, "I'll be accompanying you." Hank looked at his premier team with satisfaction as they stared back at him with varying degrees of shock and disbelief. They hadn't seen that coming. "Dismissed."

Still in shock, they filed out of the room. Smiling, Hank pushed himself out of his seat, walking into his office and closing the door behind him. His smile fell away and he sighed heavily as he caught sight of the person waiting there for him.

"You're supposed to be on sick leave," he said, sitting down heavily behind his desk. First he had had Captain O'Neil on the phone, arguing his case to get SG-13 reinstated on the mission list. Now it was apparently Doctor Wilson's turn.

"I know," she said. "And I am, honest."

"But...?" anticipated Hank.

"It's really more of a slayer query," Doctor Wilson told him. "I was just wondering... What's happening to Faith's bag?"

Hank looked at her in surprise. He hadn't expected her to ask that. "Doctor Jackson is leaving for England tonight. He's going to deliver it to the Watchers Council. Now, if that's all...?" he left his last sentence hanging, waiting expectantly for her to leave.

"Oh... um, okay," she said, backing towards the door. "Thank you, General."

"You're welcome," Hank dryly told her, but she was already gone.

**l**

Jool could hear the phone in her room ringing as soon as she turned onto her corridor. She hurried towards her room, hoping to catch whoever was calling her before they rang off. She knew it was a futile effort however, and she was proved right when the phone stopped ringing as soon as she opened her door. Typical.

Jool let her door swing shut with a sigh and then jumped when the telephone rang loudly. Again? Either whoever was trying to get hold of her was desperate, or there was an apocalypse.

Jool snatched up the phone, "What's wrong?"

"Where the hell have you been?" the irate voice of Captain Jonathon O'Neil floated down the phone line. "I've been trying to get hold of you for hours."

Jool glanced at her watch, "I've only been gone for twenty minutes."

"Never mind," he said impatiently. "Listen, the General won't let us back on base until next week but that doesn't mean we can't plan what we're going to do when we do. Get back."

"Right," Jool agreed as he faltered awkwardly.

"So here's what I need you to do!" he told her. "Grab hold of everything you can about Kelowna. If anyone asks why, tell them you were doing some light reading on Hok'taurs and Jonas Quinn's name came up. In fact, grab Jonas' file too. Ask Walter to arrange a car to take you to my place tonight. Tell him we're having a movie night or something."

"Alright," said Jool, wondering who Jonas Quinn was and what he had to do with Kelowna. And what was a hoktor when it was at home?

"And find out what the Daedalus' schedule is," he ordered and she had to resist the urge to snap off a salute. Ah, feck it! He couldn't see her. "I think that's everything. Oh! Faith's backpack..."

"Doctor Jackson's going to deliver it to the Council tomorrow," Jool told him, pleased to be contributing actual sentences to the conversation.

"Oh." There was silence from the Captain for a moment. Then, "Why Da-Doctor Jackson?"

Jool frowned, puzzled by the reason behind the question. "I don't know," she told him.

"Cool. Cool..." he replied. "Well I guess I better phone the guys and tell them to get their butts round here tonight. 'Bout eight?"

"Eight o'clock," Jool nodded.

He hung up. Jool stared at the telephone receiver for a moment before returning it to its cradle. She frowned. Once again she was left with questions about his past. Who was Jonas Quinn and had he really been about to call Doctor Jackson Daniel or was it just her imagination? She shrugged. At least she had something to do today.

**l**

His eyes closed, Oz played his guitar. The whole day stretched before him. A whole week if necessary. Just him, his guitar and a new chord to learn. Bliss. He smiled.

The phone rang.

**l**

Andrew was picking out new curtains when his cell phone rang. Digging the vibrating phone out of his pocket, he ignored the way that people edged away from him as the Wormhole X-Treme theme emanated from his person, too busy wondering why he was getting a work call when he was off sick. One look at the caller display explained everything.

"Hi Jon!" he answered his phone chirpily. "Do you think navy blue or chocolate brown curtains would look better in my bedroom?"

"What?" Jon asked him. "Never mind. What are you doing tonight?"

"I was thinking about checking out a club," Andrew told him. "Ooh! You want to come with?"

"Forget it," Jon said ruthlessly. "Movie night, my place."

"Um, okay," Andrew agreed. "You want me to bring popcorn?"

"Bring beer," advised Jon.

"I really like the flower detail on the brown ones."

"Get the blue."

**l**

All things considered, the infirmary was probably Cam's least favourite place to be. The smell alone conjured up all the old feelings of helplessness he'd experienced learning to walk again after his crash in Antarctica. Add to that all the time he'd spent practically chained to a bed in the place since he'd joined the SGC and was it any wonder that he hated the place? But after dropping his pen six times in the five minutes they'd been waiting for General Landry earlier, he'd reluctantly decided to get himself checked out. Again. He felt like a hypochondriac.

"Colonel Mitchell!"

At least Doctor Lam looked surprised to see him. Cam smiled awkwardly at her as she bustled towards him. Thankfully the infirmary was mostly empty for the first time since SG-1 had returned from Atlantis so Cam only had to endure the curious looks of a couple of airmen and Sergeant Siler.

"What can I do for you?" Doctor Lam asked him curiously, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat.

"I keep getting pins and needles," Cam confessed in a low voice.

"Where?" looking concerned, Doctor Lam steered him over to a nearby bed and sat him down.

"All over," Cam told her.

She frowned, fitting her stethoscope over her ears and placing the chest piece over his heart. She listened for a while, still frowning, and then pulled the ear buds out. "Since when?" she asked.

Cam thought about it. When had it started? "I guess, since my blackout on P4Y-682?"

"Why didn't you say something?" Caroline asked him, horrified.

He shrugged, "We were busy and, to be honest Doc, it's not exactly a regular thing."

"Okay," Caroline said, taking a step back and hanging onto her temper by sheer force of will. She beckoned a nurse over, "We'll take some blood and then start with an ECG."

**l**

His feet made no sound as he walked down the hallway towards the Slayer's cell. The slayer in the first cell was awake but engrossed in a series of rapid sit-ups, her back to the forcefield. Not that it would have made a difference if she had been facing the other way. The glamour concealing him would have protected him from her attention anyway. He didn't bother to check on the other two slayers further down the passage. Whether they were awake or not, it didn't matter. They wouldn't hear anything that passed between him and his latest assignment.

She'd got her act together since the last time he'd visited her and found herself something to dig an escape tunnel with. She hadn't got very far from the look of things. She was having difficulty hiding the sand she was scooping out by the cupful.

Whistler stood and watched her work for a moment. She'd do alright, this one. She was a fighter. Now if only he could get it through her thick head that The Powers were only trying to help her... Okay, so they weren't so much trying to help her as they were trying manipulate her into position to save the galaxy, but the principle was the same.

"You're better with them than you think," he told her, thinking about the slayers that followed her and those yet to come.

Faith snarled and lunged for him with the metal rod she had been using to dig her tunnel.

"I wouldn't-" Whistler started to warn her. She bounced off the forcefield. "Ooh!" Whistler winced. "That had to hurt."

"What the fuck do you want?" she growled at him, picking herself up off the floor.

"C'mon Slayer, did you really think I just popped in to tell you you were destined to lead these kids?" Whistler scoffed. "I thought you'd heard of me. I'm a messenger for The Powers That Be, kid. When I show up it means they've got something important to say."

"I don't suppose delivering this message involves shutting off this forcefield and letting me and my girls out, does it?" asked Faith, her voice dangerously sweet.

"Sorry, no," said Whistler, not looking the slightest bit sorry. "This is one mess you're gonna have to get yourself out of. You've really gotta stop letting other people do your dialling for you, you're running way behind schedule."

"Just say what you came here to say and get the fuck out of here," Faith told him forcefully.

"I am,"" Whistler told her. He sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of the brown jacket he wore, "It's like talking to a brick wall. Where's a bottle of whiskey when you need one?"

Faith glared at him.

"Oh," said Whistler, realising. "Yeah, sorry. Where was I?"

"I'm behind schedule," Faith spat out the words.

"Yeah... They can't keep shielding the slayers forever, you know," Whistler informed her. "You gotta get to them before Adria."

"Why?" Faith wanted to know. "Why does she want them so much?"

"You kidding me?" Whistler asked her, his face sombre. "The worship of a slayer? Talk about a power boost!"

"How the fuck am I meant to beat her with only three slayers when she's got whole armies of humans?" demanded Faith, agitatedly pacing her cell.

"Did you miss the part where I told you that you had to hurry up and get to the other slayers?" Whistler asked her sarcastically. It was amazing the amount of courage that could be found when there was a forcefield between you and the enraged slayer you'd been sent to point in the right direction. "Don't sweat the humans."

"Don't _sweat_ them?" Faith said incredulously and Whistler was suddenly very grateful for that forcefield.

"Yeah," he hesitated, trying to think of the right words to explain it. "Think of it this way... Each a the soldiers in Adria's army worships the Ori, yeah?"

"Yeah," Faith agreed reluctantly.

"And that worship feeds power to the Ori, right?"

"Right."

"Then every one of their followers that you kill, slay really, weakens the Ori," reasoned Whistler. "You're not killing humans, you're slaying the Ori."

"Semantics!" she accused and Whistler was impressed. He wouldn't have thought she knew the meaning of the word.

"Think of it as a dispensation," he advised, tipping his hat to her and preparing to leave.

"What about Adria?" Faith called out suddenly and Whistler stopped, turning back around to face her.

"Don't worry about Adria," he told her. "It's not your job to fight her," Faith could have sworn she heard him mutter "yet" but she couldn't be sure. "We've got other people working on that. You've just got to stop her from getting to Earth."

She should have said "How?" and she kicked herself later for not, but he was walking away and the one thing she desperately wanted to know was, "Who?"

"Who do you think?" he called back as he disappeared from sight.

"Cam..." Faith whispered to herself, allowing herself to dwell on memories of his bright blue eyes and the shape of his lips; the way that the wind had ruffled his hair on the two occasions she had seen him outdoors... the way he had tasted when he kissed her...

Clenching the metal rod tightly, she whirled and strode back to the tunnel she was digging behind her toilet with a renewed sense of purpose. She was getting out of there!

**l**

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with you," said Doctor Lam, clearly frustrated. "You're completely healthy."

"Then why the pins and needles?" Cam asked.

"There's no medical reason for it," Doctor Lam shrugged. "It's possible that it could be lingering after-effects of your exposure to the Mind-Melder but it's difficult to know for sure. Has Colonel Carter made any progress with it? Is there anything to suggest that it might still be active?"

"Far as I know it's still gathering dust in Daniel Osbourne's office," Cam told her. "Sam wanted to take a look at it after the whole thing on P4Y-682 but she wasn't comfortable with just taking it while he was in the infirmary."

"I see," said Doctor Lam, frowning. "Well, Colonel, you're free to leave," she stepped aside slightly with a smile.

"Thanks Doc," said Cam, hopping down from the bed.

Frowning, Caroline watched him go. There were far too many medical anomalies about Colonel Mitchell occurring for her peace of mind. Take his Ancient gene for example; her machines still weren't able to detect it, and although it was true that Doctor Beckett had used Ancient technology to discover it, her machines could detect that there was something wrong with that sequence of the Colonel's DNA. It wasn't anything that she could put her finger on, it was still the Colonel's DNA, but it had _changed_ somehow sometime between the baseline map sequenced for him when he had first joined the SGC and the genome maps she was doing for him now.

And now there were these random outbreaks of pins and needles. Try as she might, Caroline couldn't escape the feeling that this was all tied to the Mind-Melder and Faith. She made a mental note to speak to her father about it and then hurried off to her next patient.

**l**

Standing in the empty elevator, Daniel frowned. He had a nagging feeling that he'd forgotten something, but what was it? He had all the texts he should need... his suitcase was in the trunk of his car... Faith's heavy backpack was slung over one shoulder... Deep in his abstraction, Daniel failed to notice the elevator slowing and the doors opening on level twenty five. It took a familiar voice to jolt him out of his preoccupation.

"Sneaking out in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye?" pouted Vala, entering the elevator. "I thought that you were better than that, Daniel darling."

"Vala..." Daniel sighed wearily. He knew he had forgotten something. "I meant to stop by..."

"Of course you did, Daniel," Vala told him brightly. "That's why I had to track you down myself."

"What do you want?" Daniel asked her tiredly.

His lacklustre response barely threw Vala for a microsecond, hurt flickering briefly in her eyes before she banished it with a slight laugh. "Can't a girl come and see a guy off?" she asked with a leering wink.

"Vala..." Daniel groaned. He had a long flight ahead of him and he was too tired for Vala's heavy-handed flirting. Fortunately the elevator doors opened on level eleven and he could make his escape.

"Have fun in England!" Vala called after him, a slight thread of wistfulness running through her voice. On second thought... "Not too much!" she shouted as the doors slid shut. She sighed at her reflection as the elevator began to descend. "Be safe," she whispered forlornly.

**l**

The bags of beer he was carrying dragged at Andrew's arms as he waited for Jon to answer his door. He shifted his feet, glancing over his shoulder at the deserted road behind him. Why couldn't Jon have scheduled movie night to begin before sunset? Because he hadn't grown up in Sunnydale, Andrew supposed.

The door opened and Jon stood there, dressed in jeans and a charcoal shirt. "Hey," he said and stood to one side of the door. At least he knew not to invite anyone in, thought Andrew.

"Hi," Andrew returned the greeting, entering the house and giving his bags to Jon. "I got popcorn as well. You didn't say not to."

"Cool," Jon was inspecting the contents of the bags. "Oz and the Doc are already here."

Following Jon into the living room, Andrew was surprised to see that his other teammates weren't poring over Jon's eclectic DVD collection. Instead, Oz was hunched over a laptop and Jool was studying papers that she'd spread over the coffee table. The TV wasn't even on! Instead, some opera was playing in the background.

"The more I think about this," Jool said meditatively, "The more I think Caroline did us a favour."

"How?" asked Oz.

"Well, I know that the Daedalus is due back tomorrow, but don't forget that it's scheduled for an immediate overhaul of its hyperdrive engine," Jool reminded them. "Now we probably could have made a case for requisitioning it and going to Kelowna as soon as the Daedalus arrived but we'd be risking the hyperdrive malfunctioning or something. And I asked around and the overhaul is only supposed to take _a week_."

"It still sucks," Jon told her flatly, opening a beer.

"What happened to movie night?" Andrew asked plaintively.

"Change of plan," Jon told him, handing him a beer.

**l**

Hearing the footsteps in the distance, Faith had the toilet back in position and the metal bar and the last few loads of sand safely hidden by the time Anise arrived, giving her just enough time to throw herself into a relaxed pose on her new bed. Her hip sank slightly into the gap she'd ripped out of the mattress poles and she smiled innocently at Anise.

"That time already?" she asked her with faux-pleasantry.

Anise, exhausted by the irregular hours she was putting into her experiments, trying to break down the girls' resistance by conducting her tests at odd times, sneered at her. She couldn't resist the opportunity to gloat in her power over them however, flicking though the files she held on them in her handheld scanner.

"I find it fascinating that your resistance to the zat'nik'tel continues to build while that of your companions has stabilised," she told Faith with a supercilious air.

"Is that Anise talking or Freya?" it was Faith's turn to sneer.

"Both, of course," Anise told her, surprised that she felt the need to ask. "I wonder..."

"What...?" asked Faith with dread in her voice.

"It's just a theory," Anise mentioned diffidently, "But I wonder if it could possibly be because you are the source of the mutation and they have been affected by their proximity to you, something which is now at an end." Faith stared incredulously at her. "It is only a theory," Anise defended awkwardly.

She rallied herself, standing upright as she confronted the hok'taur she had managed to contain for further study, "You'll be pleased to hear that this phase of testing is almost at an end."

"Goody," said Faith sarcastically. "What's the next?"

"Pain resistance," Anise explained with the air of one speaking to a child. "I told you."

"Fucking joy," commented Faith.

**l**

Jool stared out of the passenger window, watching Colorado Springs pass by. She'd been in America for almost a month now, but the sensation of being in another country had yet to sink in. Living under Cheyenne Mountain, her world was so enclosed that she could have been anywhere in the world, apart from the prevalence of American accents. But there were other accents in the SGC; the Canadians all thought her French accent was hysterical and she was even getting the chance to brush up on her Russian. It was only when she visited the surface that she was reminded that she was in a different country. She felt like a tourist.

"So..." Oz said and she dragged her attention away from the window and over to him. "You and Jon."

"What?" Jool said vehemently. "No!"

Oz spared her a glance from the road and an eyebrow raised in surprise.

Jool's hands twisted in her lap and she dropped her gaze to star at them, "Maybe once," she admitted awkwardly. Her eyes flashed up to his face, "Don't tell anyone."

"Wasn't gonna," Oz told her with a glance.

Jool sighed, "Thanks."

"If it helps, I didn't know," Oz shrugged. "I was gonna tell you that you two need to work through whatever argument you had the other day."

"Oh," said Jool, feeling foolish.

Oz glanced at her curiously, "So. You and Jon?"

**l**

Faith groaned as she opened her eyelids and rolled over onto her back. Every time she woke up after being zatted, she felt worse. It was all very well for Anise to talk about her increasing resistance, but the snake wasn't on the receiving end of her "experiments". Talking of experiments... Faith groaned again when she remembered that Anise was planning to move onto the next stage of her sadistic tests. Grabbing hold off the metal rod she was using to dig her way out of her cell, Faith pushed herself to her feet. She had to get them out of there before that happened.

**l**

Sitting down at his desk to start work the following morning, General Hank Landry was surprised to find a file entitled 'Operation KIM' and marked for his eyes only waiting for him. Opening the folder, he was amused to discover that KIM stood for Kelownan Infiltration Mission and that this was only the first draft. A slight smile on his face, he read on.

**l**

Jon hated shopping. But his old apartment had been fully furnished and his new place wasn't. He had managed to get some stuff, but even he had to admit he needed more. So, now that he didn't have anything to do, he ambled down Main Street, hoping to buy some furniture and get out of there before the shops started to fill up with the lunch rush. He found himself wondering how the rest of his team was filling the day. Maybe he should call Andrew and casually suggest that the young watcher take the Doc shopping. She must be bored out of her mind stuck in the mountain with nothing to do.

Or not. Maybe she was standing over there, at the open driver's door of a car, having some sort of argument over the car roof with her driving instructor. He hadn't even known she had a lesson booked, he thought as he headed over to her.

"What's up Doc?" he asked, and suppressed the snigger. She looked flustered enough.

"Oh!" she noticed him. "Hello Captain."

"What's the problem?" he asked, making sure his gaze took in the driving instructor, who'd lost a little of his bluster when Jon's rank was involved.

Not much though, "This crazy bitch ripped my steering wheel off," he accused and sure enough, the Doc was holding a steering wheel and looking sheepish. "Now she wants her money back. I told her, I'm gonna sue!"

"I wasn't even in the car for ten minutes," the Doc argued. "And I didn't mean to pull the steering wheel off. It just sort of happened."

"I'm gonna sue you for every penny you own and more," the driving instructor threatened the Doc.

"Hey!" Jon snapped. "I'm thinking she should sue you for providing her with a faulty car to learn in."

"What?" the driving instructor and the Doc said at the same time.

"So here's what we're gonna do," Jon told them. "You're gonna give the lady her money back and call a tow truck," he said to the driving instructor. "And then I'm gonna give her a driving lesson."

"You are?" the Doc asked him, looking surprised.

"Ya, sure, you betcha," said Jon, already regretting it.

**l**

He drove her to the middle of nowhere. Up the mountain and then off the road and onto a dirt track. He knew the road like the back of his hand. Finally they came to a large flat clearing with picnic table dotted on the trimmed grass and Jon stopped the truck, turning off the engine. Getting out, he walked around the truck and opened her door.

"Your turn," he said.

Jool got out. She knew it was childish, but she was so excited that she skipped around the truck and up into the driver's seat, reaching for the keys only to discover that he had had taken them out of the ignition. Surprised, she turned to him, only to be treated to a lecture on the gearbox and pedals.

"I already know this," she told him. "The Jeep I drove on the base was a manual."

"Yeah, well, we're starting slow," Jon sighed and handed his keys over. "Stay in first gear and drive slowly around the tables."

With a put-upon sigh, Jool obeyed, starting the engine and putting the truck into first gear. The vehicle lurched as she struggled with the clutch and accelerator and then she got the hang of it and they were away! Travelling around the outside of the picnic tables at a whole two miles per hour. Wait a minute... Jool squinted at the dials on the dashboard. Better make that two kilometres per hour. Were kilometres more or less than miles?

"Good," Jon praised her when they were on the opposite side of the clearing. "Now, press the clutch down and change up into second gear." The gearbox crunched horrendously and Jon winced even as the Doc apologised. "Slowly," he cautioned as their speed began to pick up.

After a couple more laps of the clearing, Jool felt as though she was starting to master the art of driving. She'd managed to drive for five minutes without crashing into anything or wrecking the Captain's truck. In fact, she felt confident enough to start up a conversation.

"So... why did you tell Graham that I should sue him?" she asked curiously.

"Graham?" he reached out and made a minor correction to the steering wheel, steering them away from a tree stump.

"My driving instructor?" Jool reminded him. "I mean, I didn't mean to pull his steering wheel off but it was definitely my fault."

"He doesn't know that," he pointed out. "Humans aren't supposed to be able to pull off parts off cars. It's a dog-eat-dog world; if someone threatens to sue you, threaten 'em right back. Nine times out of ten they'll back down. Okay, start weaving in and out of the tables."

"Oh," Jool said, thinking hard as she obeyed him. "What about the tenth time?"

"Get a lawyer," he advised bluntly.

She supposed it made sense – America was well-known for its prosecution-happy population. But how was it that he was so knowledgeable about the whole process when he was only a teenager?

They lapsed back into silence as she steered the truck in and out of the picnic tables. It was a comfortable silence, broken occasionally by Jon giving Jool directions. For the most part Jool concentrated on driving but she couldn't resist the occasional sidelong glance at him as he lounged in the passenger seat, his brown hair ruffling in the breeze from the open window. Catching him looking back at her, she snapped her attention back to the view out of the windscreen, cursing the pale colouring responsible for the blush she could feel burning her cheeks.

"Looking forward to going to Kelowna?" he asked casually after an awkward moment.

"Oh, yes!" she said enthusiastically as she narrowly avoided one of the benches. "It should be fascinating. I can't wait to meet Faith," she spoke the older Slayer's name with reverence.

"She might not be there," Jon cautioned automatically. "We don't know for sure that she was the last person to leave Sim- Wait," he sat forward, frowning. "You mean you've never met Faith before?"

"I've heard stories," she told him. "But I've never actually met her."

"Great!" he said, flinging himself back in his seat and rolling his eyes heavenward. "Just great!"

Looking at him in concern, Jool completely failed to pay attention to where she was driving. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

He lunged for the steering wheel, "Watch out for that tree!"

**l**

Meanwhile, back at the SGC, the control room was in a state of organised chaos as the Stargate rippled behind the closed iris.

"Report!" General Landry ordered from the top of the staircase.

"Receiving IDC," Walter dutifully reported. "It's Master Bra'tac's!" He turned to look at the General as he arrived behind him, waiting for further orders.

"Open the iris," commanded General Landry, heading for the stairs to the 'Gateroom hallway. "And tell Teal'c!"

The iris cycled back and the aged Jaffa Councilmember walked through the open wormhole, closely followed by a younger and taller Jaffa. They walked to the end of the ramp and waited, the younger of the two wide-eyed and rubber-necking. Master Bra'tac spared him an exasperated look.

"Master Bra'tac!" General Landry greeted as he strode into the room. "Welcome."

"Greetings, General Landry," Bra'tac inclined his head respectfully and stepped off the ramp. "This is Gelan," he introduced the tall Jaffa beside him. Gelan made his bow to the General and Bra'tac turned back to General Landry, his face sombre as he announced, "We have news of Faith."

**l**

Jool was having fun in third gear. Okay, so she was back to going round in circles, but she was doing it in third gear! She glanced at her watch. Even better, she'd been driving for almost twenty minutes and she still hadn't crashed into anything! It had been pretty close back there with the tree though. So close that she'd shut her eyes and breathed in, _willing_ the truck to squeeze past; much to Jon's disbelief.

She and he were actually getting along quite well for a change. Almost crashing his truck into a tree seemed to have broken the final lingering tension between them. Jool gasped as she remembered something that she had meant to call him about that afternoon.

"Oh, by the way," she said and he transferred his attention to her, "Sam doesn't know if we can engage the sublight engines while we're still in hyperdrive. She going to run some simulations for us but I had to agree that she could work on the Mind-Melder while we're off. Apparently, Oz meant to study it before he got sick."

"Sam?" Jon frowned. The last he'd heard the two women couldn't stand each other. Since when were they on first name terms?

"Yeah, Colonel Carter?" Jool reminded him, thinking he didn't know who she was referring to.

Jon was just opening his mouth to tell her that he knew damn well who Carter was when his phone rang. Shutting his mouth with a snap, he dug in his pocket for the cell.

"O'Neil," he answered the phone. "Keep driving," he said to the Doc when she looked like she was about to try to stop the truck. "Not you Walter."

Shamelessly, Jool listened in on his short conversation. Trying her best to look as though the thought had never crossed her mind as he snapped the phone shut and turned to her.

"Take that path there," he said, pointing. "We've got to go back to the base."

"You want _me_ to drive there?" Jool squeaked.

**l**

Faith threw jug after jug of sand over the floor of her cell, no longer caring about keeping the evidence of her tunnelling secret. Still sand continued to pour out of the hole she had created. Fucking desert planet!

She jammed a piece of her new bed, now in pieces, into the tunnel, shoring up the roof, and crawled into the hole. She was almost up to her waist now and guessed that she would soon reach the crystal wall of the passageway. Clutching the thin metal pole that had got her this far, she jabbed it into the tightly-packed sand in front of her. It crunched into something that wasn't sand, broke through and then lodged itself in something that might have been the passage wall.

Faith pulled it out and squinted through the hole. No light. So what had she hit? Sand trickled down over her shoulder in a steady stream and Faith got the hell out of there before the tunnel collapsed on her again. That hadn't been fun.

Emerging into her cell, she grabbed another piece of her bed, ready to head back in and shore up the tunnel. In the corner of her eye, something flickered and she stopped, glancing over her shoulder.

There was nothing there.

Faith frowned. She stood up, the tunnel forgotten, and stared at the hallway. There had been something there. Hadn't there?

"Whistler?" she called, unconsciously tightening her grip on the piece of headboard she held.

Her view of the hall disappeared in a wall of static that stretched from one side of her cell to the other. Faith jumped back, startled. The static vanished and the hallway reappeared.

"Fuck me," Faith whispered, her eyes on the forcefield. That crunch must've been something important.

The forcefield dissolved into static once again and Faith hurled herself at it, not stopping to think what the consequences might be. An unpleasant tingling sensation, like goosebumps or a nearby Prior, passed over her and she was out into the hall.

"Yes!" she exulted, punching the air.

"Faith?"

"You did it?"

"Are you free?"

Mallie, Kay and Nya all spoke at the same time. Using the piece of headboard she still held to break the forcefield controls, Faith had freed Kay by the time they had finished. Mallie and Nya were released at the same time, Kay opting to just rip the controls to Nya's cell out of the wall. Faith didn't bother trying to check Mallie's exuberant hug but she wasn't expecting Nya to slam into them. Her eyes met Kay's amused ones as the oldest slayer stood to one side, her eyes dancing merrily as she quietly observed them.

"Okay! I don't do group hugs," Faith exclaimed, extricating herself from their grasp.

"Now what?" a voice asked, and it wasn't a voice belonging to any of the slayers there. In fact, it had a distinct Brooklyn sound to it...

Faith held up her hand, checking the three slayers about to slay first and ask questions later. She greeted him coolly, "Whistler."

"Slayer," Whistler cheerfully returned the greeting, pouring himself a large glass of whiskey from the bottle he held. Faith stared at it and her nose twitched as she sniffed the air. Was that Jack Daniels? Whistler toasted her with his glass, "Congratulations on the escape." He tossed back the whiskey, grimacing, "Ah! So, not to sound repetitive but, now what? That dispensation we talked about doesn't cover snakes, y'know?"

It _was_ Jack Daniels! Faith glared at him as he poured another glass, "You come all this way just to tell me that?"

"Not just that," Whistler said defensively, waving his glass in her direction. Precious whiskey slopped over the edge and onto the floor. Faith found herself wondering if he was drunk. "Forgot to mention it before. You missed one."

"What?" Faith asked, beginning to lose her patience. Beside her, Mallie twitched, clearly just waiting for the word from her to start pulverising the demon in front of them.

"Slayer. You missed one," Whistler repeated. "Number of planets you've been to, you should have four by now, not three."

"What do you mean I missed one?" Faith demanded. "When?"

Whistler shrugged, "Think about it. I'm sure it'll come to you." He turned to go and Faith felt impotent rage boil up in her throat.

"That's it?" she cried after him. "You're just gonna go?"

"I said congratulations right?" Whistler said as he walked away. He stopped and his shoulders slumped as he sighed, "Ah, hell!" Turning back around, he threw the bottle of Jack Daniels he carried at Faith. She snatched it out of the air, cradling it to her chest. "You're doing good kid," he told her before he walked around a corner and out of sight. His voice floated back to them, "I knew you would."

The slayers stood in silence for a moment after he had left, each dealing with the aftermath of the feelings he had evoked. For the majority of them, it was a relatively simple matter. For Faith however, the emotions Whistler had stirred were more complex. Almost without realising what she was doing, she unscrewed the lid of the bottle of Jack Daniels and took a large gulp.

"Faith...?" Kay said tentatively.

Faith hissed as the alcohol burned its way down her throat. "Let's get out of here," she said.

**l**

Wondering why they were being called into the mountain while they were off sick, Oz stepped off the elevator at level twenty-seven and walked towards the briefing room. Walter hadn't given him any information over the phone, just told him to come in. He hoped that the others were there. Or did the General just want to see him? Oz couldn't think of a reason why.

Walking into the room, he was relieved to see that Andrew was already sitting there with General Landry, Teal'c and two Jaffa that he hadn't met before. Nodding a general greeting at everyone, and ignoring the way that the oldest Jaffa's eyebrows rose at the sight of his orange hair, Oz slipped into a seat to wait for Jon and Jool to show up. He was a little surprised that neither of them was there. Surely Jon had been the first of them that they had called and even though she managed to be late for every briefing, Jool lived on the base. Shouldn't she have been there first?

Oz didn't have long to wait, and Jon and Jool arrived together. Jon stopped dead a few steps into the room and Oz could see the conflict written on his face at he stared at the three Jaffa ranged on one side of the briefing table. Frowning at him with confusion, Jool walked around him to take a seat at the table.

Jon had frozen. Whatever he had been expecting to find in the briefing room, this wasn't it. As Jack O'Neill, he wanted nothing more than to go over and greet Bra'tac in his usual manner; with a slap on the shoulder and a wise-crack. As Jonathon O'Neil however, he knew that what he had to do was sit down at the table and wait to be introduced. Unless he wanted to blow his cover. Now if only his feet would move...

Eventually Jon moved forward and sat down at the table, but by that time his hesitation had been noted by everyone in the room, although only one, Teal'c, had any clue as to its real cause. Oz was rapidly putting two and two together however, and finding that it equalled something that vaguely resembled four. Jool wasn't far behind the werewolf but the Captain's behaviour mystified her on this occasion. General Landry attributed the hesitation to unease in the presence of aliens, an assumption that Bra'tac also jumped to. Of all of them, Andrew and Gelan were definitely the most oblivious.

"Now that we're all here," General Landry said pointedly. "This is Master Bra'tac, one of the Jaffa High Council members. Master Bra'tac, this is SG-13, whose job it is to search for Faith. Andrew Wells," Andrew waved happily at Master Bra'tac, "Captain O'Neil," Jon nodded professionally to Bra'tac, "Daniel Os-"

"O'Neill?" Bra'tac interrupted, leaning forward to look curiously at Jon.

"One 'l'," Jon told him, holding up a finger.

"Captain O'Neil is not a relative of General O'Neill's," Teal'c informed Bra'tac, avoiding looking at the General's clone. He felt uncomfortable with the half-truth he had just told to his old mentor but he knew that he had no choice. It was not an honourable course of action however.

"Daniel Osbourne," General Landry repeated, resuming the introductions. "And Doctor Wilson," he turned to SG-13. "Master Bra'tac has some news about Faith."

"Really?"

"What kind of news?"

"Have you seen her?"

The questions came thick and fast and Bra'tac held up his hand to halt the young humans opposite him. "I have not seen her myself," he told them. "Although Gelan here has. Perhaps," Bra'tac glanced at General Landry. "He should begin?"

General Landry nodded and Gelan swallowed nervously as he looked around at the attentive faces pointed in his direction. He could hardly believe that he was here, on the Tau'ri homeworld, with Master Bra'tac and Teal'c. And they wanted to hear what he, Gelan, had to say!

He coughed nervously and began, "I met Faith on Duran, the night after Teal'c left," he glanced at Master Bra'tac who nodded reassuringly at him. "She, Kay, Mallie and Nya had-"

"Nya?" Captain O'Neil interrupted him sharply.

Gelan nodded, noticing that Teal'c exchanged an uneasy look with Captain O'Neil while the rest of SG-13 looked confused. He also noticed that the Doctor woman was scribbling notes. "I believe that was her name," he told them. "They had just arrived on Duran and they were seeking accommodation in one of the inns."

**l**

Faith kicked the Magic Dialling Mushroom in frustration. It had all been going so well! They'd even found their stuff stashed in one of the rooms. There had been no sign of Anise and they'd been able to make their way to the rings and the planet surface without any difficulty. She should've known it was too good to be true. The Magic Mushroom was broken, or sabotaged... whichever. It didn't really matter. The point was that it wasn't working.

She tipped her head back to the sky, shouting, "What the fuck to do you want from me?"

The three slayers huddled in a group a slight distance away exchanged uneasy looks. Faith turned rapidly on her heel, scooping up a rock about the size of her fist and hurling it into the distance. She screamed after it. As the last echoes of her screech died and she turned away, all four slayers distinctly heard the clunk of something striking metal.

As one, the slayers turned to face the direction of the noise, quivering like a dog pointing at game. Slowly, Faith bent and picked up another stone. Hefting it in her hand, she considered it for a moment before sending it hurtling after the first.

This time they saw it bounce... off nothing.

And they were off. Sprinting across the dunes towards the invisible something in the distance. Sliding on the sand but never losing their footing or slowing for a second. There was something that felt very natural to them about their environment. Later, Faith would wonder if it had anything to do with Sineya. Now, however, she gave herself over to the moment and the exhilaration of running as fast as she could.

Skidding the last few feet, Faith brought herself to a halt bare inches from where the stone had hit, Kay and Nya joining her seconds later. Mallie overshot the mark and slammed straight into whatever it was.

Her sister slayers winced and then gaped as an opening appeared in the air, leading into a gold-lined hallway.

"So," said Faith nonchalantly. "I'm thinking either Aladdin's Cave or spaceship."

She had to use her elbows to get to the front of the rush towards the door. Inside the ship – it _had_ to be a spaceship – she stared at the hieroglyphs carved into the golden walls. Behind her, Nya and Mallie jostled each other for a better view, Kay bringing up the rear. It was Kay who found the switch to close the door, making them all jump when it suddenly slid shut.

"Dammit, Kay!" said Faith, putting her zat away. "Warn me before you touch anything."

"Sorry," Kay didn't sound the slightest bit sorry as she followed them into a large room with a wide window.

"Okay," said Faith, taking in the low-slung seats in front of consoles and the strange controls. "I'm guessing this is the cockpit. Anyone know how to fly this thing?" she added hopefully.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Kay asked indignantly.

"You used to live on a Jaffa planet," Mallie pointed out helpfully.

"I ran an inn," Kay reminded her acerbically. "That doesn't mean I can fly a tel'tak."

"Ah!" Mallie exclaimed triumphantly. "But you can recognise one."

Faith meanwhile was inspecting the squiggles displayed on the console with dismay. For all the difficulties she had imagined lay ahead of her, she'd never imagined having to learn a new language was one of them. And one that had no resemblance to any alphabet she'd ever seen.

"Just tell me you can read this," she said to Kay, staring at the alien language.

Kay came up behind her to look over her shoulder, reading the words on the screen, "Hyperdrive offline."

**l**

"...And then Faith broke the Prior's staff," Gelan had been talking for some time now and his throat was beginning to feel sore.

"How?" Captain O'Neil wanted to know.

"With her foot," Gelan told him, his eyes distant and a slight smile on his face as he recalled the sight.

"What happened next?" asked Andrew Wells. The slight Tau'ri had been on the seat of his seat ever since Gelan's account of the first Ori attack.

"Duran burned," Gelan said simply.

"Huh?" said the Tau'ri with the bright orange hair. Gelan remembered that his name was Daniel Osbourne. This was the first time he had spoken.

"First the Prior, and then the whole town caught fire," elaborated Gelan. "Almost half of the people still there managed to escape to Dakara."

"What about Faith and the others?" Doctor Wilson asked, looking pale.

"They too travelled to Dakara," Master Bra'tac reassured her.

"I found them quarters in the refugee camp," Gelan told them. "It was my intention to escort Faith to see Master Bra'tac but when I returned the following afternoon, their tent was empty."

"Faith came to the temple to see me," Bra'tac picked up the tale. "Unfortunately the guards turned her away. When I heard from them that she was on Dakara I immediately began to search for her. All I could find was Gelan."

"And this all took place a couple of days ago?" Captain O'Neil asked them.

Bra'tac nodded gravely, "It did indeed."

"Crap," the Captain said succinctly.

"Then... there's no way Faith could be on Kelowna," Andrew Wells said slowly.

"I believe that Andrew Wells was able to obtain the last address dialled from Nya's home planet," Teal'c explained to Bra'tac. "It was not Duran."

"There must have been a Prior on the planet too," Doctor Wilson surmised. "We know that Kelowna's under Ori control; he must have 'Gated there from Simarka."

"So if Faith's not on Kelowna," said Captain O'Neil, "And she's not on Dakara... then where the hell is she?"

**l**

The shadows cast by the relentless sun had lengthened but still the tel'tak sat on the planet's surface. Inside, Kay peered at a console and then pressed a button, her every action watched closely by the three slayers behind her. This had been going on for some time.

"Alright," said Kay in a bracing tone as she stepped back from the consoles. "I think that's all the pre-flight checks completed."

"Are you kidding me?" Mallie exploded. "We're trying to escape and you're doing pre-flight checks?"

Faith head snapped around so fast to look at the petite blonde that she thought for a moment she might have given herself whiplash. She really had been a bad influence on the girl, she thought. At least she hadn't cussed.

"Do you really want the hyperdrive to start feeding back on itself?" Kay snapped.

"Um..." said Nya, trying to break into the conversation.

"Not good?" Faith asked Kay.

"Not good," Kay confirmed.

"Uhhh..." Nya said, her hand tentatively rising.

"But we're good to go now, right?" Faith asked.

"Right," Kay replied positively. Her face fell as she admitted, "As soon as I work out how to turn the sublight engines on."

"Um, we have a problem," Nya summoned up the courage to speak.

"What?" Faith asked her, noticing her nervousness for the first time.

Nya pointed out of the window in reply. At the figure casting a long black shadow as she strode across the desert towards them, the wind tugging at her hair and clothes.

"Shit!" Faith exclaimed. "Anise!" Grabbing hold of Kay, she shoved her into the pilot's seat, "Get us out of here."

"But..." Kay protested.

"Now!"

Faced with an impressive array of buttons and switches, Kay did the first thing she could think of and placed her hands on the large orange ball directly in front of her. The spaceship's engines started with a shudder. Outside, Anise started to run towards them.

"Alright," Kay said to herself. She exhaled slowly, trying to steady her nerves, "You can do this."

"Just fly!" cried Mallie as Anise drew nearer.

Tentatively, Kay pulled her fingers towards her. The ball slid easily towards her and the ground tilted away from them as the nose of the ship rose. Slowly, they began to ascend. Kay rolled the ball towards herself, more firmly this time and the ship responded by accelerating.

"There," she sighed. "Easy!" The ship lurched as she turned around to grin at the others, her hands still on the controls, and sent them staggering.

"Eyes where you're driving!" Faith snapped and Kay quickly turned back around just in time to see the last of the atmosphere disappear, replaced by the dark blanket of space.

"Ohh..." sighed Nya, enraptured by the sight.

Faith walked forward to stand next to Kay, her eyes also on the vast expanse before them. She rested her hand on Kay's shoulder. The older slayer was doing incredibly well for someone who'd never been in a spaceship in her life less than an hour ago. She'd come a long way from the woman who was too squeamish to stick around while Mallie gutted their dinner.

"We need to get out of range of the rings," she said quietly to her.

"Do you really think Anise is going to attack us?" Mallie asked curiously.

"I'm going as fast as we can," Kay told her tersely, trying to look at Faith, several screen displaying vital information and the view at the same time. "I can't fly the ship and plot a hyperdrive course at the same time."

"Mallie," Faith said, turning around to face the two others. "You've been in spaceships before. Learn how to fly this thing so Kay can work out a hyperdrive course. Nya, come with me, you're gonna guard the ringroom."

"What are you going to do?" Mallie asked sulkily.

"Find the shower," Faith told her bluntly. "I've got sand in places you wouldn't believe."


	17. Idle Hands

**A/N:**

It's my birthday! So, in what's becoming a tradition, have a chapter to celebrate with me!

Enjoy!

**Idle Hands**

Washed, scrubbed and dressed in a tunic and pants she had found, Faith entered the cockpit of the tel'tak, trying very hard not to think about the fact she was wearing Anise's clothes. It was either that or climb back into the grimy, sand-encrusted military clothes she had been issued aboard the Korelov so long ago.

To her surprise, instead of finding both Mallie and Kay there, only Kay was there, poring over one of the consoles. Faith frowned. No-one was piloting the ship; they were hanging dead in space. What the hell was going on?

"Where's Mallie?" she asked and her voice came out more harshly than she had intended. Kay jumped and turned around to face her.

"She and Nya are examining the cargo," she told Faith softly. "We're out of range of the planet and I thought it best to talk to you before I made any decisions about our destination."

"We have cargo?" Faith asked, flopping into the other seat.

"Crates of it," said Kay. She smiled at Faith.

Faith's mouth twitched upwards and then she leant forward, all seriousness now.

"So what are our options?" she asked. "Don't suppose Earth is one of them?"

"Sorry," Kay grimaced, turning to the console she had been working on. "I ran a search of the navigational system. It's not in there."

"Didn't really think it would be," Faith admitted with a sigh. "So whadda we got?"

"We've got enough fuel to take us to any one of these planets," Kay told her, displaying images of three planets on the windscreen. "Of the three, this one," she highlighted one of the planets, "Has no Tok'ra or Goa'uld presence. There's surprising little information in the navigational computer about it but it does say that it has a Stargate."

"What's the catch?" Faith wanted to know.

"We don't know if the Ori are there," said Kay.

Faith sighed, standing and rubbing her hands down her face. "Okay," she said. "Do we know if they're on either of the other planets?"

"This one," Kay highlighted a different planet. "Cimmeria. It's got a Tok'ra agent, Thoran, there."

"What about the other one?" Faith asked.

Kay grimaced, "It belongs to Ba'al."

"Who's Ba'al?"

"He's the most powerful Goa'uld System Lord alive," Kay explained, surprised that Faith had never heard of him. "Many Jaffa still worship him as a God and it's rumoured that he has discovered the secret of being in two places at once or even the same place twice!"

"Not someone we want to run into then," Faith mused, staring at the three planets displayed. "Okay, we go with this one," she said, pointing to the first planet Kay had highlighted. "What did you say it was called?"

"Kelowna," Kay told her. "I've never heard of it."

Faith shrugged, "Seems like as good a place as any." She stretched feeling her muscles pop, "I'm gonna go find Mallie and Ny, see if they wanna go a round or two. You... calculate the hyperdrive route or whatever it you gotta do."

"I've already done that," Kay said, but Faith had already left the room.

Kay sighed, uploading the destination in the navigation computer and turning the hyperdrive on. She stared, amazed, as a roiling purple cloud seemed to form in space and the ship leapt towards it. She blinked and they were travelling through the cloud, streaks of purple, blue and white flowing past them. Her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open, Kay gazed at the sight, mesmerised.

**l**

Jool was bored. Now that the Kelownan Mission had been cancelled there was nothing for her to do at the SGC, especially since SG-13 was still on sick leave. Caroline shouted at her every time she so much as set foot in the infirmary. She missed the sky. It was depressing being surrounded by grey walls. She couldn't use the gym; at this time of night it would be occupied and most of the SGC were still unaware of slayers, although it hadn't taken the gossip mill long to realise that Oz was a werewolf. Surprising, the base had taken it in their stride. Jool supposed that they were already used to dealing with beings that most of the rest of the world didn't believe in. What was one more?

Maybe Vala was free? Throwing aside the battered copy of War and Peace that she fully intended to finish one day, Jool left her room, roaming the SGC corridors in search of the dark-haired adventurer. But Vala wasn't to be found in any of the communal rooms and Jool had no idea where her room was. In desperation, she went to see Walter, who gave her directions to Vala's quarters and also to Doctor Jackson's office, which he recommended that she try first. Sure enough, Vala was there, sitting behind Doctor Jackson's desk and using his computer.

"Hi," Jool said from the doorway.

"Shh!" Vala hushed her, gesturing her to come in with one hand while clicking the mouse with the other, her eyes fixed on the computer monitor. "Ha! Take that ashtarrah42!"

"What are you doing?" Jool asked curiously, walking around the desk to stand behind Vala. Ebay? "Are you buying a copy of the Kama Sutra?"

"It's for educational purposes," Vala tried to claim. Jool suppressed a snigger and raised an eyebrow, "To compare the Tau'ri attitude to sex to; okay, fine, I wanted to look at the pictures."

Jool was frowning, "How are you going to get it delivered to you?"

**l**

They waited until she had just sat down with a glass of Jack Daniels and a lit cigarette, her first of both in fuck knew how long, before they pounced. Faith had just taken her first long drag, and was holding the smoke in her lungs when Mallie, Kay and Nya appeared in the doorway. Mallie led the other two to the table where Faith sat and they stopped in front of her, looking at her with expressions that ranged from determined to nervous.

"What?" Faith asked, looking up at them through a cloud of smoke.

"Who is Whistler?" Mallie demanded to know.

"Shouldn't someone be steering the ship?" Faith countered, .

"We're in hyperspace; the ship is piloting itself," Kay told her, taking a seat at the table. She leaned towards Faith, looking concerned, "Talk to us, Faith."

"Please," added Nya in a small voice.

Faith sighed and pinched out her cigarette, saving it for later. "He's a balance demon," she told them. "He works for The Powers That Be." They knew all about The Powers now. She'd just about talked herself hoarse while they were stuck in Anise's lab.

"How do you know him?" Mallie asked eagerly, sitting down at the table. Nya joined them.

"He picked Angel up off the streets back in the nineties," Faith explained. "Showed him B, cleaned him up and packed him off to Sunnydale. B's met him too."

"But today wasn't the first time you'd met him, surely?" Kay asked gently. "How did you recognise him?"

"You shouted his name a few days ago," remembered Nya.

"I saw a picture of him in one of G-man's books once," Faith explained. "But you're right, he popped into my cell a couple of days ago."

"Why?" Mallie wanted to know.

"He had a message from The Powers," Faith sipped her whiskey, stalling for time as she tried to decide how much to tell them. "That's what he does, delivers messages."

"What did they say?" Nya asked, her eyes wide.

"That I'm behind schedule and I need to stop letting other people dial," Faith said bluntly, setting her glass of whiskey down on the table and waiting for the inquisition.

"Well, what do they mean by that?" exploded Mallie.

"Behind schedule?" Kay asked, frowning.

"So what are you going to do?" asked Mallie.

"Finish my whiskey and cigarette," Faith told her, propping her feet up on the table and picking up her glass. "Look, we're out of Anise's dungeon, we're flying to another planet, there's nothing more I can do right now."

"But what did Whistler mean, behind schedule?" pressed Kay, looking worried.

"He said that The Powers couldn't keep shielding the other slayers forever," Faith told her. She shrugged, "I guess he meant that I gotta get to them before Adria does."

"What did he say about Adria?" Mallie asked eagerly.

"Not much," said Faith. She frowned, "He said I had to stop her from getting to Earth." And that it wasn't her job to fight her, Faith remembered darkly. But wasn't stopping Adria the same as fighting her? How could she stop her without fighting her?

"How?" Mallie wanted to know.

Faith scowled at her, "He didn't say."

"What about this dispensation he mentioned," Kay asked Faith, trying to steer the conversation away from dangerous waters. "What is it?"

Faith laughed bitterly. She knocked back the rest of her drink before she replied, "Remember I told you slayers aren't allowed to kill humans? Well," she grabbed the bottle of whiskey, pouring herself another glass. "Apparently we're allowed to kill Ori soldiers."

"Really?" Mallie leant forward excitedly.

"Surely that's a good thing?" said Kay.

"We aren't allowed to kill humans?" asked Nya, looking disappointed. "Why not?"

"Because we were created to protect them," Faith said harshly. "Believe me, you don't want to go there."

Her eyes met and held Nya's. Eyes that seemed almost black with rage, guilt and anguish. Nya dropped her eyes, shaken by the glimpse of darkness she had seen within Faith's eyes.

"So why are we allowed to kill them now?" Mallie asked blithely, oblivious to the moment that had just passed.

"Because they're feeding the Ori," Faith swallowed a large mouthful of Jack Daniels. She really hadn't wanted to think about this just now.

"So... we can slay followers of Origin?" Nya asked tentatively, a tendril of hope threaded through her voice.

"No!" Faith said adamantly. "Whistler said the soldiers on the ships."

"What if they attack us?" Kay asked, thinking of the worst-case scenario.

Faith frowned, thinking carefully about it. "Then you can defend yourself," she allowed. "With a reasonable amount of force."

"Define reasonable," Mallie said archly.

Faith sighed, "Okay. Mallie, attack Nya. Quarter strength and speed. Ny, you're fighting off a human who's trying their best to kill you."

"What?" yelped Nya, leaping out of her seat and backing away as Mallie advanced towards her.

"You gotta learn somehow," Faith told her, raising her glass to her. "Shouldn't hurt," Mallie's fist hit Nya's jaw and Faith winced. "Much."

"You're evil," Kay said admiringly in a quiet undertone as the two of them watched the ensuing sparring match.

"Yup," agreed Faith, propping her feet up on the table and sipping her whiskey. "You're next."

**l**

Daniel frowned as he compared the address on the piece of paper he held with the large building in front of him. Could this really be the European headquarters of the New Watchers Council? It didn't look like the head office of an ancient and arcane society. Although its brick exterior blended perfectly with the other buildings in the street, it was clearly a very new structure. And it had window boxes of flowers and a boarded up window on the second floor. But this was where his cab driver had dropped him.

Shouldering Faith's backpack, Daniel started up the stairs to the bright red front door. Lifting the heavy brass knocker in the shape of a cross (maybe he _did_ have the right building) he rapped on the door and waited.

He could hear voices inside the building but no-one answered the door. Lifting the knocker again, he used more force to bring it crashing down. The door shifted inwards a few centimetres. Daniel hesitated slightly before he pushed the unlocked front door open, calling at the same time, "Hello?"

The noise hit him like a sledgehammer. What seemed like hundreds of teenage girls filled the foyer of the building, all screaming at the top of their voices. A white puppy with a high-heeled shoe in its jaws ran across the room, closely pursued by two girls. Everyone seemed to be carrying an antique weapon of some kind and Daniel was briefly diverted by the sheer variety of the weapons. Morningstars, Rondels, Lochaber axes; there was even a girl carrying a Khopesh. The noise was deafening and he could only make out snatches of conversations.

"...Demon blood _in_ my bra..."

"Bad Twinkie!"

"...Detention tomorrow..."

"Has anyone seen my axe?"

"So then I said to her..."

"My shoe!"

"...Having a sale..."

"Seriously! Where's my axe?!"

"Where are we patrolling?"

"... Gonna miss X-Factor."

"I was going to wear these!"

"I haven't touched your stupid axe!"

"I heard there's a nest...."

In vain, Daniel looked for someone in charge. There wasn't an adult in sight. None of the teenagers in the room had spotted him yet and so he lingered in the doorway, feeling awkward and out-of-place in a way that he hadn't for over ten years. He found himself thinking that Vala would fit in well here. She had the same sort of manic energy displayed by the slayers gathered here, if in slightly smaller amounts.

"Hi!" a perky voice said directly in front of him and Daniel looked down at a slight pre-teen girl cuddling the puppy he had seen earlier. The shoe was nowhere to be seen. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah," Daniel said, shifting the heavy weight of the backpack on his shoulder. "Uh, I'm here to see Buffy Summers?"

"Buffy's gone back to Scotland," the girl told him. "Is it apocalypse-worthy?"

"Uh..." Daniel blinked. Was it? "I don't think so."

"I'll get Giles," the girl was gone before Daniel could reply.

He took the opportunity to study the crowd in the foyer as he waited for her to return. Now that one of their own had spoken to him, a lot of the weapons had vanished. Some of the older girls were staring at him with a naked hunger that even Vala would be ashamed by. Unnerved, Daniel dropped his gaze to the tiled floor, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Fortunately the girl who'd spoken to him quickly popped up in front of him again, still clutching the puppy.

"Giles wants to know who you are," she told him.

"Oh!" said Daniel, mentally chiding himself for not telling her his name earlier. "I'm Doctor Jackson. From the SGC," he added quickly, in case this Giles person didn't recognise his name.

"Cool," the girl smiled up at him. "I'm Tiffany. Be right back!"

And with that she was gone again, expertly weaving through the crowd and out of the room. Daniel kept his eyes on the door she had disappeared through, wondering just how old she was. Surely she wasn't a slayer.

Moments after Tiffany had gone into the room, the door opened again and people began to file out. They were older than the slayers thronging the room and the majority of them were male. Here were the watchers then.

As soon as they entered the foyer, the atmosphere electrified. Girls lounging on the stairs leapt to their feet and conversations died down. Groups of slayers attached themselves to watchers and Daniel hastily leapt out of the way as there was a general stampede towards the door.

"Bye, Doctor Jackson!" Tiffany called out as she rushed past him. She waved at him with the hand that wasn't holding a large mace.

In a remarkably short amount of time the foyer was empty and the building was quiet. Jetlagged and a little overwhelmed, Daniel stood in the middle of the room staring bewilderedly at his surroundings. Had he really just been left here on his own?

"No! Leave!" the stern voice came from the room the watchers had just left. "Bloody dog! Leave it!"

Curious, Daniel wandered over to the open doorway. It led into a large library, where a man in a tweed suit was grovelling on his hands and knees under a large oval table. As Daniel watched, the man grumbled to himself, his back to Daniel.

"You had to go after the bloody Krakanovka. Do you know how rare that is?" the man began to worm his way backwards out from beneath the table. "There are only three known copies in existence and you've just used one as a bloody chew toy!"

"Um... hello," Daniel made his presence known and the man jerked upright, cracking his head against the solid wood of the tabletop.

"Ow!" the man crouched back down, rubbing the back of his head. "Bloody hell."

"Sorry," apologised Daniel, moving forward to offer the man a helping hand out from under the table.

He took it, and Daniel could hear the joints in his body creaking as he stood up. The man was in his late forties or early fifties, quite tall when he was standing, and he still had most of his greying hair. He was holding the white puppy under one arm and a slim volume under the other.

"Doctor Jackson, I presume," the man said, setting the book on the table, but leaving the squirming puppy under one arm. "Are they alright?"

"Who?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Andrew, Oz and Jool," said the man. "I assume that's why you've come."

"Oh," said Daniel. "Uh, no. I mean, they're fine. But that's not why I've come."

"Oh," the man looked confused for a moment, sitting down and gesturing for Daniel to do the same. "Rupert Giles," he introduced himself. "I understand that you wanted to see Buffy."

"Yes, said Daniel, wondering how much Rupert Giles knew about the SGC. "I-I came to deliver this," he told the man gesturing to the large backpack resting against his chair. "It's Faith's," he added unnecessarily.

"Good Lord!" said Rupert Giles, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. "So it is. Where on earth did you find it?" When Daniel hesitated, unable to share classified information with a civilian, Rupert Giles narrowed his eyes, popping his glasses back on. "I assure you Doctor Jackson," he said firmly. "I am already aware of the substantiation of your theory and can provide the necessary documentation to prove that I have been briefed on the existence of the SGC. We keep copies of everything here."

"I can see that," a relieved Daniel said with a glance around his surroundings. His gaze fell on one of the books scattered across the table. "Is that Pendleghast's Compendium? I thought the last copy was burned in 1933!"

"Yes, well, ahem, we managed to smuggle it out of Germany in time," Mr Giles told him. "You can take a look if you like. _After_ you've told me where you found Faith's bag," he added as Daniel reached for the book.

"It was on Camelot," Daniel told him, smoothing his hand over the soft leather cover of Pendleghast's Compendium.

"Good Lord!" Off came the glasses once more and Mr Giles began to polish the lenses. He eagerly leaned forward, "Really?"

**l**

Faith's body ached pleasantly as she got ready to bed. What had started as an impromptu sparring session had turned into hours of coaching the others in the finer arts of fighting dirty. Whether it was kill or be killed or just a bar brawl, there was something to be said for taking your opponent out quickly. Faith had no intention of letting any of the slayers in her care die because they were afraid to take a cheap shot at someone. Perhaps it wasn't the best lesson to learn straight after a lecture about not killing humans but it was one they had to learn. The sooner the better. Faith still couldn't believe Nya had never kicked a man in the balls. She hadn't spent a day on Nya's world and she'd still yearned for the opportunity to introduce Chakka's nuts to her steel toe-caps.

The exercise, exhilarating after so long spent locked up, had chased all thoughts of Whistler and his messages from her mind. Only now that Faith was alone in her room did they start to creep back in. The things she hadn't shared with the others earlier rose up to haunt her. Things like, The Powers moulding her. The fact that she had to stop letting other people dial the 'Gate; did that mean The Powers were manipulating where she went? And how she was going to stop Adria from getting to Earth without fighting her. How did you fight someone who was half-ascended anyway?

Sliding between the sheet, feeling the cool fibres slipover her skin, Faith resolutely shut her eyes, determined not to think about it. Any of it. She could deal with it tomorrow.

Whistler had said that they had other people working on fighting Adria. Did that mean...? Faith sat bolt upright in bed. Did that mean Cam had to fight her?

He was only human! How could they expect him to fight Adria and win? How could he survive? She'd heard that SG-1 were good, but were they that good? Could they take on a semi-God and win?

Too agitated to remain still, Faith got out of bed and jerkily pulled her clothes on. She still hadn't finished that cigarette from earlier. She'd go smoke it now and stare out the window at hyperspace for a bit. Hopefully that'd calm her down enough to sleep.

**l**

It didn't make sense. There was absolutely nothing about the man in the SGC computer system. Yes, he was no longer working there, but there were plenty of retired personnel whose files were still kept on record. So why were Major-General O'Neill's records so impossible to get hold of?

Curiosity about Jonas Quinn (and the Captain's connection with him) had set Jool researching the Kelownan. This, in its turn, had sent her off on a tangent, investigating Jonas' teammates. Colonel O'Neill's reports had proven sufficiently entertaining (and his name so similar to the Captain's) that she had wondered why he was no longer with the SGC.

That answer had proven more difficult to find. She had managed to trace the Colonel through his rise to Brigadier-General and commander of the SGC. Then he had been promoted to Major-General and had vanished from the SGC. So what had happened to him?

Leaning back and stretching in her chair, Jool froze in horror as her eyes fell upon her clock. She was late for her driving lesson! Leaping to her feet, Jool grabbed her bag and headed for the door. She was almost there when she remembered that she hadn't logged off her computer. Doubling back, she quickly shut the machine down, disappearing from the room before it had finished the process.

**l**

Clutching a steaming hot cup of coffee, courtesy of Nya, Kay entered the cockpit of the tel'tak, intending to spend as much time as possible learning the systems of the ship before Faith woke up. She stopped just inside the doorway, surprised to see Faith sprawled over the console when she and the others had believed her to still be asleep in her room.

Moving silently over to her, Kay checked the consoles carefully. Good. The Tau'ri slayer hadn't turned anything vital off in her sleep. She made a few adjustments to the controls to compensate for the various buttons and switches Faith had accidentally pressed during the night and placed her hand on the slayer's shoulder, intending to gently wake her.

Faith exploded up out of her seat, one hand unerringly finding Kay's throat despite the fact that her eyes weren't open yet, and propelled the older woman backwards. Kay's coffee fell to the floor. Her back hit the wall. Faith's hand tightened.

"Faith!" Kay croaked, her fingers scrabbling to free Faith's hand from her throat.

Faith's eyes, open but blank, cleared and recognition came into them, followed shortly by horror. "Shit, Kay!" she exclaimed, releasing her. Kay fell to her knees, coughing violently as she heaved air into her lungs. "Sorry. You okay?"

"I'm fine," Kay rasped. "I'll be fine."

Faith helped her to her feet and Kay made a mental note not to wake Faith in future. If it needed doing, she'd send Mallie.

**l**

Jool knocked on Doctor Jackson's doorframe, her eyes on the brunette sitting at the desk. Looking up from Doctor Jackson's computer, Vala beamed at her and Jool strolled into the room, taking the seat opposite Vala.

"Are you sure Doctor Jackson doesn't mind you using his office?" she asked yet again.

"He knows I don't have an office of my own," said Vala, waving her hand dismissively. "How was the driving lesson?"

"Not bad," shrugged Jool. "The Captain says I'm getting better. He's going to let me drive on roads tomorrow." She hesitated before asking her next question, "Vala...?"

"Yes?"

"How good _are_ you on a computer?"

Vala looked up from the computer, her eyes meeting Jool's, "I'm no Sam, but I'm better than Daniel," she said. "Why?"

"I'm trying to find a personnel file but I can't find it in the system," Jool explained.

"Whose?" asked Vala, intrigued. Her fingers hovered over Doctor Jackson's keyboard.

"Major-General Jonathon O'Neill," Jool told her. "Two 'l's."

"General Jack?" Vala asked in surprise. The same General who occasionally emailed Daniel?

"You know him?" asked Jool.

"Well, I've never met him," said Vala. "But if he's the same O'Neill who emails Daniel then he works for Homeworld Security."

"There's a Homeworld Security?" Jool snorted in disbelief.

"Oh yes," Vala told her, her fingers dancing over the keyboard. "Didn't you know that the SGC reports directly to them?"

"Hadn't a clue," Jool said brightly. "Got anything?"

"Major-General Jonathon O'Neill," Vala said, turning the computer screen around to face the other woman. "I Googled him."

Major General Jack O'Neill had very few hits, not surprising when you considered that the man worked in the Special Forces, reflected Jool. She did learn that he was six foot one, had brown eyes and greying hair, liked hockey and was attached to the Pentagon. Apart from that, Google was unusually unhelpful. And she really wished she'd thought of it.

**l**

"No, Mallie, you're still dropping that shoulder," Faith said, breaking off their sparring session to correct the other girl's posture. "Try again," she told her, offering her hands as targets. "Good!" she praised as Mallie hit her left hand. "Keep going."

Faith looked past the young blonde at the pair fighting on the other side of the room. She sighed, automatically moving her hand back into position after each of Mallie's punches, her attention fixed on Kay and Nya as they circled one another, occasionally darting in to strike a blow that was inevitably blocked by the other. She'd thought teaming the two, both inclined to fight defensively rather than offensively, together was a good idea but it wasn't working.

"Okay!" she called, stepping back from Mallie. "Time out." Nya and Kay stopped immediately, turning to face her. Faith stared back at their expectant faces and experienced a moment of mental exhaustion. How the fuck did the G-man cope, being responsible for all the slayers on Earth?

"New plan," she told them, falling back on the reward system she'd dreamed up in Anise's lab. "Mallie, you're against Nya, Kay you're with me. First one to defeat their opponent gets to ask a question about Earth tonight."

They'd competed fiercely in the isolation of their cells for the opportunity to question her. The one thing they all had in common was their burning desire to learn more about her home planet. It was no different here; Mallie quickly paired up with Nya and Kay reluctantly crossed the room to stand opposite Faith.

"This is hardly fair," the older woman complained.

"Suck it up," Faith told her, privately agreeing. She rolled her shoulders and grinned at her. "You might get lucky."

"I doubt it," muttered Kay.

"On three," said Faith, wondering what Mallie would ask tonight. "One, two... three!"

**l**

Oz had barely crawled out of his bed when there was a knock on his apartment door. Frowning, he padded to the door in his bare feet and boxers. The peephole was too high for him to reach and he hadn't gotten round to putting a lower one in yet so he opened the door on its chain, peering through the gap like a scared old woman.

"Hi!" said Jool, holding up two large Starbucks cups. "Coffee?"

Nothing could possibly sound better to Oz right now. Closing the door, he slid the chain off the catch and opened the door fully. Jool handed him a cup as she entered and he had drained half of the contents before he'd closed the door and turned to face her.

"What's up?" he asked, fortified by the coffee.

"I need a favour," Jool confessed.

Oz took another swig of coffee. "With what?"

"How good are you at hacking?"

**l**

Nya could barely contain her excitement as she skipped down the passageway. She beaten Mallie and won the opportunity to ask Faith a question about Earth! She didn't know what had come over her but as soon as Faith had said "three", she had attacked Mallie, driving the other slayer further and further back until a well-placed kick to the stomach followed by an uppercut to the jaw had knocked Mallie unconscious. Perhaps it was because she had never won the chance before?

Faith had stopped the training session immediately and dismissed Nya while she and Kay tended to Mallie. She had thought it best that Nya not be there when Mallie woke up. Nya didn't care. She could ask whatever she wanted about Earth and Faith would answer! She smiled happily.

And stumbled to a halt, the smile falling from her face. She was happy! What kind of mother was she that she could be happy when her daughter was trapped on her home planet, or worse? Chaia... She almost moaned as she felt again the agony of loss and uncertainty. Beloved daughter, she cried silently. I love you. Please be safe.

**l**

Three more coffee runs and a doughnut run later, Jool was in possession of a semi-complete copy General O'Neill's military record. The unclassified version had been available several trips earlier but as it had contained almost as much information as she already knew, she had asked Oz to keep digging. This heavily censored version was as good as it got though. Anything more detailed was buried beneath layers of security that even Oz's skills couldn't penetrate.

"It's not much," she said, leafing through the meagre pages he had printed out for her. "But it's something." Oz didn't even bother to look up from his laptop, engrossed in the intricacies of extricating himself from the Pentagon's computer systems without alerting them to the fact that he had been there. "I mean," Jool continued talking to herself. "At least we know what he did during the Gulf War, even if everything related to the SGC has been edited out." She turned the page, "Apart from his consultation work for Wormhole X-treme," she added, her eyebrows climbing.

A car horn beeped in the street outside and Jool glanced at her watch. "That's the Captain," she told Oz, stuffing the document in her bag and standing up. "I've got to go." Oz waved at her. "Thanks Oz!" she called as she left, shutting the door behind her.

She might give up on the whole General O'Neill thing, Jool mused as she skipped down the stairs. She wasn't getting very far and it was only a very tenuous connection. They didn't even spell their surnames the same way! General O'Neill probably had nothing to do with the Captain.

And then she was outside and he was leaning against his truck waiting for her. His strong arms crossed and pulling his shirt taut across his muscled chest. The wind played with his hair and his chocolate coloured eyes were warm as he watched her approach, all thoughts of Major-General Jonathon O'Neill driven from her head by Colonel Jonathon O'Neil.

"You need a haircut," she blurted as soon as she was close enough to speak to him.

He grimaced ruefully, running his hand through his unkempt hair, "I know. You ready to do this?" he asked, holding out his keys.

"Of course!" Jool grinned, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she grabbed the keys.

Jon crossed himself before he climbed into his truck with her. He wasn't especially religious – he'd seen too much in his lifetime, both actual and remembered – but he figured that he needed the extra luck just before he let the Doc drive on roads.

**l**

Nya had put a lot of thought into what she would ask Faith. She had so many questions. Every time Faith talked about Earth she thought of a hundred more. She had mentally run through everything she knew about Earth before she realised that there was one thing Faith had never mentioned. Her family.

Nya had told them all about her father promising her to Chakka as a girl, her short-lived but joyful marriage to Abu and her despair when Chakka had attacked the Shavadai, killing all of their men, including Abu and their infant son, and selling the women into slavery, keeping only her. Of her secret happiness when the child she had borne him had been a girl.

Mallie hadn't spared any detail of the marriage her father had arranged for her and even Kay had spoken of the day when the Jaffa had come to her village, in search of a new host for their God. Kay's husband had objected when they had tried to take his wife, and so they had killed him in front of her. Kay hadn't been chosen by the Goa'uld. Instead, she was given to the Goa'uld's First Prime as a reward. She said that he had been a good man.

But Faith had been curiously silent on the subject of her own family.

Now dinner was over and everyone was turning to her, waiting for her to ask her question and Nya couldn't help but tremble as she asked the one question no-one had dared to ask.

"Tell me about your family?"

Faith scowled, flopping back in her chair and crossing her arms. "I said Earth, not me," she said flatly.

"Why not?" asked Mallie, feeling cheated.

"'Cause some shit you don't need to know!" Faith fired back. She sighed, looking at Nya's woebegone face. "You really wanna know about my family?" Nya nodded. "Fine.

"I never knew my dad," she told them. "Mom said he died when I was a kid but I doubt she ever really knew who he was. She's a crack whore. Crack's a drug and if I ever catch any a you using I'll beat you senseless, got it?" they nodded, listening intently. "But she's not my family," Faith's lips twisted bitterly as she shrugged. "Hasn't been since she offered me up to her pimp. I got B for family," even though it had taken her a long time to get there, she thought. "B, D an' the Xan-man. Red, Giles... Angel, if he's still alive. And you guys."

"Us?" Nya asked shakily.

"Yeah," Faith said, glancing around their faces as they adjusted to the idea that family could be something you chose. "You sayin' we're not?"

"No!" Nya denied immediately. She smiled, "No."

"Good," said Faith, smiling back. "Now! Enough of the mushy shit, ask me a proper question."

**l**

Vala found Jool in her room. From the look of things her red-headed friend was on her third bottle of Tau'ri wine. Vala was surprised that she was still conscious. On the whole, she'd found Tau'ri alcohol to be much stronger than its counterparts in the rest of the galaxy. Except for the beer.

"Vala!" cried Jool, throwing her arms open in welcome. The bottle she held sloshed alarmingly. "Join me!" she urged, pressing a glass on Vala and pouring her a generous measure of wine. "A toast! To men. Bastards!"

"What's wrong?" Vala asked Jool as the other woman tossed her head back, drinking a whole glass of wine in one swallow.

"Captain Jonathon O'Neil," Jool told her succinctly. "Wanker!"

Briefly, Vala wondered what a wanker was and then she forced her attention back to the woman in front of her. "What's he done now?" she asked, used to Jool's frequent irritation with her commanding officer. They'd been overdue an argument.

"He says that I'm not allowed to drive his truck on roads anymore!" Jool told her indignantly. "Just because I accidentally caused that twelve car pile-up when he was shouting at me. You'd think he'd be _pleased_ I managed to get his precious truck through it without a scratch! Urgh!" Jool screamed at the ceiling, her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. "I have _got_ to get some of this frustration out."

Vala watched, sipping her wine, as Jool sprang into action, opening her wardrobe and rifling through the hangers until she found something she liked. Whisking the bright blue dress off its hanger, Jool shut the wardrobe and disappeared into the bathroom. She quickly reappeared, wearing the blue dress, her feet bare and her hair loose.

"Where are you going?" Vala asked, worried about her.

"The Springs," Jool told her, her hair spilling over one creamy shoulder as she slipped her foot into a sandal, holding its mate in her other hand. "You want to come?"

"I'm not allowed to leave the base without someone," Vala told her regretfully.

"So?" said Jool, putting the other shoe on. "I'm someone."

**l**

It seemed that the only quiet time at the Council building was when the slayers were out slaying. After staying until the girls and their watchers came home the last night, Daniel had been invited to return today by Lord Giles. Having spent another fruitless day at the Tower of London, examining the treasure found by SG-1 in the Avalon cave system, he had arrived as early as he thought he could get away with. It hadn't been the good idea he thought it was.

It meant that he had to share the library with a parade of whispering slayers and the occasional watcher, come to check that the girls were doing their homework. Daniel could have told them that they weren't.

A loud gong sounded and the slayers abandoned their seats to rush for the door, leaving their belongings scattered about the library. Daniel heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever that gong had sounded, it had given him peace and quiet and for that he was thankful.

"Dinnertime," Lord Giles explained from the doorway and Daniel turned to face him. "Will you join us?"

Daniel couldn't think of anything worse than sitting around a table with all of those hungrily curious slayers. "Thank you, no. I've already eaten," he lied.

"I'll arrange for a tray," Lord Giles said understandingly. He turned to go.

"How many slayers do you have here?" Daniel asked him curiously.

"Twenty-three," Lord Giles told him, turning back around to face him. "All between thirteen and eighteen."

"Because that was the age at which a slayer is called," Daniel nodded, having researched the slayer after they had first met Faith last year.

"Dear Lord, no," said Lord Giles, coming further into the room. "The oldest slayer activated is forty-eight. It appears Willow's spell affected every potential that ever was. No, unlike the old Council, we support the girls through the best schools and colleges and pay their university fees if they choose to go on to higher education."

"Oh," Daniel said, a little taken aback by the force with which Lord Giles had spoken.

"Sorry," the other man apologised. "It's a bit of a bugbear with us. So how goes the research?"

"Uh, _well_, actually," Daniel told him, turning to the open book in front of him. "Take this text for example; it actually calls Morgan le Fay by her Alterran name, Ganos Lal."

"Good Lord," Lord Giles exclaimed softly. "Is that who Ganos was?" he eyed the pile of books in front of Daniel critically. "I believe she's mentioned in a couple of other books. Let me see if I can remember."

The time the two men spent together, quietly researching, quickly slipped away. Rising noise levels signalled the end of dinner and Lord Giles sighed, getting to his feet.

"I fear I have a nightly meeting to preside over," he said to Daniel. "I'll make sure that tray gets sent to you."

Daniel thanked him absently, his nose buried in the book he was currently devouring. It didn't take long for girls to start to creep into the room once Lord Giles had left. In twos and threes they entered the room, taking up their abandoned chairs and indulging in a copious amounts of whispering and giggling, combined with outright staring at him over their books.

Daniel tried to ignore them as best he could. Once again, he found himself thinking of how well Vala would fit into this strange house. He wondered what she was doing. Probably tucked up in bed for the night with nothing between her and her sheets but a thin layer of silky scraps by now, he decided.

**l**

Brad watched the two women walking through the graveyard from his position in the undergrowth. Closer... _closer_, he silently urged them. The brunette was trailing the redhead, clearly reluctant to be there. No matter. He would wait until she was level with him, knock her out and eat the redhead. Then he could take the brunette back to his place. She could help him get the taste of the redhead out of his mouth.

"Jool, what are we doing here?" the brunette was saying. "Why don't we go back to the car and-"

"They said I wasn't allowed to tell anyone," the one called Jool slurred, clearly drunk. "They never said I couldn't show you."

"Show me what?" the brunette asked as she came level with Brad.

Had Brad been an older vampire, he might have heeded the warning bell that was ringing faintly in his ear. He might even have heard of the slayer and that it was no longer considered safe to attack girls walking through graveyards. Alas for Brad, he was a very young vampire. He attacked. The first part of his plan, knocking out the brunette, was achieved with ease. The second part was made significantly more difficult by the enraged redhead.

Jool felt the vampire behind her move and she whirled around to face him. Unable to throw her stake through his heart because Vala was in the way, she settled for bouncing the blunt end off his forehead. The vampire's eyes crossed and Jool snatched the stake out of the air as she charged him and Vala crumpled. The fight didn't last long, the vampire was only a fledgling, and Jool fell to her knees at Vala's side as a cloud of dust settled around them.

"Vala?" she asked, checking her pulse. "Vala? Can you hear me?" she peeled back Vala's eyelids, shining the penlight she carried everywhere into them. "Oh, I knew this was a bad idea! Vala?"

"Ohhh," the dark-haired woman groaned, opening her eyes. "What hit me?"

"Mugger," Jool lied, helping her to sit up and breathing a sigh of relief. "Can you stand?"

"I think so," said Vala. Her legs were a little wobbly, but she managed it once Jool had pulled her up.

"Come on," said Jool, winding a supporting arm around Vala. "Let's get you back to the SGC and checked into the infirmary."

"Does this mean I don't have to go on holiday with General Landry?" Vala asked plaintively.

Jool laughed, "Sorry, no."

"Darn."

**l**

Faith watched the others over her coffee cup, blowing on the hot liquid to cool it. Unusually, they were cooking breakfast together. Normally they took it in turns to provide meals. There was an unspoken agreement that Faith was best kept away from food preparation. She tended to serve military rations, despite Mallie's continued efforts to leave them behind.

Nya was chattering to Kay and Faith was struck by how much she had changed since she had first met her. It wasn't just Nya, Kay and Mallie had changed too. Who would have ever thought that the squeamish slayer who had never been in a spaceship in her life would be so good at piloting them? Mind you, Faith remembered, she did make a mean Molotov cocktail. And Mallie, innocent little Mallie who hadn't had the guts to stand up to her Father until he arranged her marriage to a Prior, was developing a feisty exterior.

And her? Had she changed? Faith wasn't sure. It was difficult to tell. She certainly felt like the same person who had forced that technician (Waldo, wasn't it?) to let her through the Stargate so long ago.

Earth seemed very far away. Telling stories to the others about her home planet helped to keep it alive to her but only served to remind her of the things she missed. Things like AC/DC, razors, the wind tugging at her as she rode her bike, Cam's scent, McDonald's breakfast menu...

If she had known then everything that would happen, the battle at the Supergate, Adria, Praemas, Chaia, Duran, Anise, would she still have stepped through the 'Gate? What would have happened if she hadn't? What would happen if she failed?

Across the room, Mallie nudged Kay, pointing at Faith with a spoon. Kay frowned, wondering what was troubling the grimfaced slayer. Whatever it was, she wished Faith would confide in her. Even if she couldn't help, just talking about her troubles might help the other woman.

Picking up two bowls of food, she beckoned the other two with her head and walked over to Faith, setting a bowl in front of her. Faith continued to stare into space, a distant look in her eyes. Kay exchanged concerned looks with Mallie and Nya as they sat at the table with Faith.

"Faith?" Kay said softly, remembering all too well the consequences of disturbing Faith. "Breakfast."

"Huh?" Faith's eyes cleared as she focussed on Kay.

"Breakfast," Kay told her, nodding at the bowl in front of the Tau'ri slayer.

"What we having?" Faith asked before she looked down. "Oh. Porridge," she said unenthusiastically. "Yum."

"So what are we doing today?" Mallie asked eagerly.

**l**

Sipping his cup of tea, Giles watched Daniel Jackson from the library doorway. The young doctor hadn't noticed him yet; Giles doubted he even realised it was morning. The thick library curtains were drawn against the daylight and Doctor Jackson was reading by the light of one of the lamps carefully placed around the room.

He would make a good watcher. Giles couldn't understand why Travers hadn't recruited him as the moment he published his theory about the Egyptian pyramids. But it wasn't just his academic credentials, impeccable though they were, that would make Daniel Jackson an excellent watcher. His bearing indicated that he was comfortable in his ability to defend himself if the situation arose, always a good thing with slayers, but more than that, he was _good_ with them.

He had shown endless patience with the parade of slayers who had trooped through the doors of the library. The room had never been so busy and he had put up with all their whispering and giggling. He had answered their questions when he could and skilfully side-tracked them when he couldn't. He had helped them with their homework.

It was a shame he couldn't recruit him.

"Still here?" Giles asked mildly, moving into the room and setting his teacup on its saucer with a porcelain clink.

"Oh!" Doctor Jackson exclaimed softly, looking up. "Yes." He glanced at his watch and grimaced apologetically, "Sorry. I'm flying back tonight and I wanted..."

"To read every book in our library?" Giles finished the sentence for him, eyeing the towers of books piled in front of him with amusement.

"As many as I could," Daniel corrected with a shrug. He looked around the library, already regretting the books he hadn't had a chance to look at. "You have an amazing collection."

"We try," Giles told him, sipping his tea. "Fortunately most of the books are protected against damage with magic. Often it was the only way to preserve them through the years. We're still trying to replace the more recent volumes which were destroyed along with the old Council."

Giles grimaced and Daniel could sympathise with him. The wanton destruction of books, and therefore knowledge, was anathema to them both. When learning was almost a religion to someone, book murder was a foul crime.

Lord Giles sat down at the large table with him, quietly drinking his tea. Now that he wasn't engrossed in research, Daniel could hear the unmistakable sounds of the large house coming to life. Rapid footsteps drummed overhead and disappeared, somewhere nearby a girl laughed, and there was a smell of bacon in the air.

"Why don't you stay awhile longer?" Lord Giles invited. "You haven't even touched my personal collection."

"Your personal collection?" Daniel asked, hardly able to believe there was more.

"Mmm," said Lord Giles sipping his tea. "As Watcher to the Slayer, back in the old days, I was entrusted with many of the most important texts. Of course, I already had my own, modest, collection but I've added to it over the years."

"I really wish I could," Daniel said regretfully, starting to tidy away the books open in front of him. "I'm due back tomorrow morning."

"I understand," Lord Giles told him, nodding his head. "No doubt it's a vitally important mission...?"

"Uh..." Daniel wondered just how to describe an enforced holiday in the middle of the woods with your team and General all jammed into a too-small cabin. "Team building exercise actually."

"I see..." Lord Giles' eyes twinkled over his teacup at Daniel.

"I suppose I could stay a little longer," Daniel found himself saying.

"Excellent!" Lord Giles said, rising. "The girls will be delighted. I know that they've been dying to take you out on patrol."

**l**

Vala was bored. Even though there was nothing wrong with her, she still had to wait for Doctor Lam to discharge her before she could go. The bump on her head didn't even hurt anymore. Much, anyway. Seeing a familiar figure standing in the doorway, Vala brightened.

"Jool!" she called, waving the other woman over and sitting up. "Keep me company."

"How're you feeling?" Jool asked with a smile, sitting down in the chair next to Vala's bed.

"Bored!" Vala sighed dramatically. "And hungry. The food in here is actually worse than the food in the mess."

"That's because bad food encourage the patient to get better quickly," Jool informed her solemnly.

"Really?" Vala asked, her eyes wide.

Jool laughed, "No, I'm pulling your leg. Sorry." She pulled some cellophane wrapped packages out of her bag as a peace offering and dropped them into Vala's lap. "Here. I brought you these."

"What are they?" asked Vala, examining one of the closely.

"Twinkies," Jool told her. "Trust me, they're yummy."

"And what are you doing here?" Caroline Lam called from across the infirmary, catching sight of Jool. She smiled as she approached the pair to show that she didn't really mean what she said, "I thought I told you you weren't to set foot in here until Monday."

"I'm visiting Vala," Jool told her, smiling back. "Skip your morning coffee today?"

"Careful," Caroline cautioned with a grin. "I might have to fire you."

"Good luck with that," said Jool.

Caroline turned to Vala, staring open-mouthed at them, "Vala you can go."

"Thanks!" said Vala scrambling out of bed.

"If you get any headaches, dizziness or nausea, I want you to come straight back," Caroline told her.

"Will do!" Vala promised, her arms full of her clothes.

"I'll let you get dressed," said Caroline, tactfully pulling the curtain around the bed before she left.

"Meet you in the mess?" said Jool, getting up to go.

"Can't," Vala told her, glancing at her watch as she stepped into her panties. "I've got a briefing with SG-1 before General Landry leaves for the weekend."

Okay," said Jool, her hand on the curtain.

"Jool," Vala said, halting her. The dark-haired woman stopped pulling on her clothes long enough to look Jool in the eye, "Thank you for last night."

"Uh... You're welcome," said Jool, feeling horribly guilty. "I'll catch you later."

**l**

Faith paced back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. She was bored. Positively itching for something other to do than fight, eat and sleep. And they had another five days of this to go before they reached Kelowna. She was gonna go crazy!

**l**

Clutching his groceries, Jon pushed the store door open with his shoulder and ambled outside, heading towards his truck. Only three more years to go, he thought to himself. Then he could buy beer. The parking lot was deserted, only his truck was parked there, in the glare of a streetlight. Reaching it, Jon dumped the groceries in the back, pulling his keys out of his jacket pocket.

"O'Neill!"

Whipping around to face the direction of the unfamiliar voice, Jon saw a rumpled looking man in a brown leather jacket and battered fedora step into the light. He frowned. The guy looked like he was from the seventies. Discretely slipping his keys back into his pocket, Jon kept one hand hovering over his gun and pulled the stake out of his back pocket with the other, slipping it up his sleeve as the man approached.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"Name's Whistler," the man told him, stopping a step out of reach. "You might not know me, but I know you. Jack."

In a heartbeat, Jon had the man's back to his truck door and his gun to his head. The stranger raised his hands slowly, his eyes fixed on the barrel of Jon's gun.

"Take it easy, kid," he said.

"Who sent you?" demanded Jon.

"The Powers That Be," Whistler said with a smirk.

"The President?" Jon asked uncertainly.

"Think higher," advised Whistler with a glance up at the heavens.

Jon frowned, confused, "The Ancients?"

"Higher," Whistler told him significantly. Jon backed up a step and Whistler took the opportunity to straighten his clothing.

"What are you?" Jon asked him warily, still keeping his gun trained on him.

"Balance demon," said Whistler. "I'm kinda a messenger of sorts."

"For who?" Jon wanted to know.

"The Powers," Whistler rolled his eyes to the sky. "Jeez! Does nobody listen?"

"What do you want?"

"A beer," Whistler told him, jamming his hands in his pockets and walking away. "You coming, kid?"

Jon clicked the safety of his gun back on, watching the demon walk away. Slowly, he holstered his gun. Ah, screw it! Jon ran after him.

"Hey," he said, slowing to a walk as he came abreast the demon. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere that'll serve you," said Whistler, ducking down a grimy alleyway that Jon had never noticed before.

Jon followed him to a lit door halfway down the alley, with a broken neon sign above that proclaimed it to be Finnegan's. Whistler pushed the door open and a babble of sound spilled out into the alleyway, breaking off as soon as the patrons realised that there were newcomers. Jon trailed into the bar behind Whistler, stopping dead in his tracks as he realised that the customers of this particular bar were demons of all shapes and sizes.

"What is this place?" Jon asked, his face showing his distaste as he stared around his surroundings.

"Demon bar," Whistler told him, already propping up the bar. "You really are wet behind the ears, aren't ya kid?

"Hey!" Jon snapped, hopping up on a barstool with a view of the entrances next to the balance demon. "I'm only here because you said you had a message for me. Start talking."

"You know you're not supposed to find her, right?" Whistler said, catching the bartender's eyes and signalling for two beers.

"Who?" Jon asked, playing dumb.

"Who?" Whistler scoffed. "_Her_. The Dark Slayer. The reason for your little team."

Whistler stopped talking to pay the bartender and Jon noticed several of the demon patrons surreptitiously heading for the door at the mention of a slayer. The bartender seemed to want to linger, but Whistler turned his back on him, passing a beer to Jon and refusing to talk any further until he moved away. Jon sipped his beer and watched the man as he moved further down the bar, to serve a pair of demons dripping slime from the antlers on their heads.

"Didn't you read the prophecy?" Whistler demanded, picking their conversation up where he had left off. "Unless Faith leads her slayers home the Earth is doomed."

Hearing the word prophecy spoken, several more demons quietly got up and tiptoed out of the bar. Jon made a mental note of every one who had left.

"I read it," he replied quietly. "There's nothing to say we can't help her out."

Whistler looked at him pityingly, "The Powers don't send prophecies for laughs, kid. They've spent a long time setting this up. Screw it up and you won't like the consequences."

"Is that a threat?" asked Jon.

"It's a friendly warning, kid," Whistler told him, taking a note out of his pocket and leaving it on the counter. "But since I know you won't pay any attention to it, you might tell your slayer that it's open season on Ori soldiers."

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Jon asked him.

"You kidding me?" said Whistler, getting off his barstool and straightening the lapels of his jacket. "Just the thought of being that close to one of the Astria Porta makes my skin itch. Be seeing you, kid."

And with that he was gone, leaving Jon alone with his thoughts, two beers and a bar full of demons.

**l**

Goa'uld was a surprisingly easy language to learn. Kay said that it was because she was only learning the vocabulary, not the grammar. To prove her point, she'd shown Faith one of the ship's logs. Faith hadn't managed to translate a sentence of it. Yet. She was determined to be able to read the whole thing before their journey was over. She needed to do _something_ to distract herself. Even prison hadn't been this boring.

Kay watched from the pilot's chair as Faith struggled to translate an unfamiliar word. Kay knew exactly what it meant, but she wanted to see if Faith could work it out from the context. Faith's command of the Goa'uld language had progressed in leaps and bounds since she had asked Kay to teach her over lunch earlier. It was good to see the other slayer taking an interest in something. Whatever else it was that Whistler had told her, it had badly shaken the Tau'ri slayer they followed.

Kay had difficulty with the concept of a leader who wasn't her. She suspected they all did and wondered if it was because they were slayers. Over time Faith had won her respect. Her loyalty Faith had had since the day Kay had met her. Not the day that Mallie had carried the slumbering Faith over her threshold; the day that Faith had woken and Adria had come. From that day, Kay would have followed Faith to Netu and back had she but asked. Still would.

So to see Faith struggling to come to terms with something, and not be able to help her, not even be allowed to know what it was, was difficult for Kay. Mallie and Nya hadn't yet noticed it, but Faith's periods of introspection were growing longer, and the spaces of activity between them shorter and more frantic. It was as though she was trying to drive herself to a point where she wouldn't be able to think any more; a difficult thing for a slayer and something that was almost impossible under these circumstances.

"Faith..." Kay said hesitantly before she could convince herself a bad idea. "What else did Whistler tell you?"

Faith's body language closed off. She hunched over the console she was working on and scowled as she muttered, "I already told you what he said."

"But there's something else, isn't there?" Kay pressed gently, leaning forward in her seat to reach out to Faith. "Something more. It's tearing you apart, Faith. Please tell me what it is. It might help-"

"Nothing's gonna help!" Faith shot up out of her chair. "So just drop it!" she raged as she stormed out of the room.

"Well done, Kay," that woman sighed to herself as she flopped back in her seat. "You mucked that up nicely."

**l**

"What's that?" Buffy asked, stopping dead in her tracks just inside the room as she caught sight of the object lurking in the corner.

Xander followed her gaze, "Faith's bag," he told her.

"I see that," said the Slayer. "What's it doing here?"

"That Doctor Jackson guy dropped it off at the Council Building," Xander explained. "The G-man sent it to us."

"Why?" asked Buffy frowning. "I don't like it. It's like they're saying she's dead. They're returning her effects!" she defended awkwardly as Xander raised his eyebrows.

"This was with it," Xander told her, handing her the crumpled envelope.

Buffy turned it over in her hands, noting the scrawled 'B' on the front. Tearing the cheap envelope open, she unfolded the piece of paper tucked inside, reading it avidly. Finished, she groped blindly for a chair, sitting down and rereading the letter, more slowly this time. She carefully folded it back up when she was done.

"Where's Dawn?" she asked.

Xander frowned, "I thought she was with you?"

Looking troubled, Buffy stood up to go.

"Buff?" said Xander, stopping her. "What did it say?"

She handed him the letter in reply, hurrying from the room. Unfolding it, Xander sat down in her empty chair and began to read.

_'B,_

_Had a slayer dream. Yeah me. A real one. Got the feeling that it was urgent so don't have much time to write. Not much good at it anyway._

_I gotta go through the gate B cause I think the worlds gonna end if I don't. I know you're wondering why I didn't stick around to explain all this shit but like I said I get the feeling this is urgent. Hopefully it won't take long but in case I don't come back I'm gonna leave this with the gatekeepers. That way they've got something to give you when you come looking for me._

_Faith_

_P.S Keep an eye on D. In my dream you said it was tuesday.'_

"Dammit, Faith!" Xander swore when he was finished, rubbing his eyepatch where it was irritating his cheek. "You should've waited for us."

**l**

Faith's mood was foul for the rest of the day. It was with a definite sense of relief that the other slayers disappeared to their rooms as soon as the final training session of the day was over. No-one was asking questions about Earth tonight. Kay was folding her clothes when she became aware of a presence in the doorway. Turning to face it, she was surprised to see Faith.

"You really wanna know what Whistler told me?" the dark-haired slayer asked, leaning against the doorjamb.

"I do," Kay replied quietly.

Faith entered the room, closing the door behind her. "I don't want Mallie and Nya to know," she told Kay.

"I won't tell anyone," Kay promised, sitting down on her bed. She waited for Faith to begin.

"You were right," said Faith. "Whistler said... some other shit."

"Like what?" Kay asked softly when Faith stopped talking.

"Like The Powers moulded me," Faith said bitterly, beginning to pace the small room. "They moulded me! All the crappy shit in my life, mom, Di, Finch, Angel... I couldn't a stopped any of it. They needed a weapon against the Ori and they made me it. But that's not all he told me."

"It's not?" Kay was surprised. She couldn't imagine anything worse than discovering your entire life had been beyond your control. The worst times of her life had been when she had no control over it. Just that torturous secret explained Faith's moods over the past few days. That she was keeping even more back...

"He said that it's not my job to fight Adria," Faith stopped pacing to confess.

"But you said that we had to stop her from getting to Earth," Kay frowned, confused.

"That's what he said," Faith told her.

"But how can you stop her without fighting her?" Kay asked, still confused.

"Exactly!" Faith said, starting to pace back and forth again. "And how can I not fight her when we're both tracking down slayers? He said they had other people working on fighting her. I think he means Cam and the others but how can they fight her? How can anyone fight her? She's half-fucking-ascended!"

"Which also makes her half-human," Kay reminded her, trying to calm her down.

"And another thing!" Faith continued regardless, pacing more and more quickly. "This whole business about not letting anyone else dial."

"What about it?" inserted Kay.

"I've been thinking about it and every time someone else has dialled we've wound up in the shit," Faith told her. "Mallie dialled us off her home planet twice. First time we get caught by her psycho aunt and transported straight back, second time we wound up on a ice planet! I dial us off it and we find you. You dial us off your planet and we end up stuck on a deserted planet with the Stargate at the bottom of the ocean!" Kay was starting to see a pattern... Faith had dialled off that planet and they had found Nya. And she had dialled off Simarka and Duran had burned.

"You know what it means?" Faith demanded. "They're still fucking controlling me! What more do they want? I've _murdered_ because of them!" Kay could have wept at the agony in Faith's voice. "Why can't they just tell me what they want me to do? Why do they have to send Whistler with his riddles and half-answers? Behind schedule? What schedule?" Faith was almost shouting now. "How many slayers do I have to find before I can go home? What is it they're expecting me to do? Oh God," Faith abruptly stopped pacing and fell silent, her face white and shaken by a sudden thought.

"If they moulded me into a killer, then what do they want me to do to get home?" she asked Kay quietly. Kay could only stare up at her, unable to find words to comfort her. Faith kicked Kay's small bin across the room, "Fuck!"

She flung herself onto the bed beside Kay. Staring at her hands as they rested on her thighs, she heaved a great juddering sigh. "You asked," she reminded Kay.

They caught each other's eye and then, madly, impossibly, absurdly... against all of the odds, they began to laugh.

**l**

Daniel had decided that it was probably best to wait until the last possible moment before he told General Landry that he wouldn't be coming to Jack's cabin. There was less chance that the General would order him to return if he'd already missed his flight. Now, waiting for the other man to pick up his phone, Daniel worried that he might have miscalculated.

"Landry," the General said as he answered the phone.

"General," Daniel started.

"Doctor Jackson!" General Landry greeted him genially. "Just landed?"

"Uh... no," Daniel told him. "Actually sir, I thought I might stay a few days longer. Lord Giles has invited me to see his private collection, and if it's anything like his public library..."

"That good?" General Landry's voice sounded rueful. "I want you back at the SGC by nine-hundred hours, Monday."

"Yes sir," Daniel promised gratefully. "Thank you sir."

"You're welcome!" General Landry told him before he rang off.

**l**

Andrew desperately tried to peer over the heads of the people surrounding him but it was no good. He was too short. Desperate, he tried jumping up and down, earning glimpses of the people arriving in the roped off section beyond the queue to get it. They were here!

Excitement sent him bouncing higher and higher until he accidentally landed on the feet of the Klingon behind him. The massive alien growled at him, raising his bat'leth threateningly. Stammering an apology, Andrew subsided.

The encounter was soon forgotten and Andrew eagerly shifted his weight from foot to foot as the queue shuffled forwards. This was going to be the best convention ever!

**l **

The track he was following, increasingly pitted with holes and ruts, finally petered out at the end of a field full of wheat. Cam sighed as he stared out the windscreen at it. Yup, he was definitely lost. Putting the car into reverse, he carefully turned it around in the narrow space, heading back the way he had come. Maybe he shoulda taken a right at the Post Office after all?

**l**

It was surprisingly easy to gain access to the mountain. Hank was apparently a lot softer than Hammond, who had been known to leave orders with the gate sentries that injured personnel be barred from entering Cheyenne Mountain. The sentries on duty seemed to have no clue that he and Oz were technically on leave, waving them through once they had checked their passes. They weren't turned back at any of the checkpoints either. Jon, who'd once made it as far as level eleven as Jack before Hammond's orders had turned him back, kept expecting them to be denied entry at every checkpoint but they never were. Even when they were walking through the SGC hallways, no-one challenged them. It was depressing.

As Jack, Jon had been treated with a level of respect and deference that he wasn't as the leader of SG-13. SG-1 were still the unsung celebrities of the SGC. SG-13 was the runt. They were largely ignored by the majority of the base (Jon could never have got away with this if he had been Jack O'Neill) and had no voice in the day-to-day running of the base or place in the competitive politicking of the SG-teams. Not that he had ever got involved in the petty politics of the base, of any base, but he missed feeling like he belonged here. SG-13 was tolerated, not accepted. And now, with Whistler's warning, they might no longer have a purpose.

He tracked the Doc down in her office, balancing on a stepladder with her back to the door as she replaced the light fittings in the ceiling. Rather than disturb her, and possibly cause her to fall, he hovered in the doorway, waiting for her to finish.

"You can come in," she said, amusement colouring her voice as she stretched up to the ceiling, light bulb in hand.

"Whatcha doing?" Jon asked, entering the room with Oz in tow. He couldn't help but admire her curves as she screwed the light fitting into place. He silently cursed adolescent hormones and tried to think unsexy thoughts. Like Kinsey... naked.

"Fitting daylight bulbs," she told him, climbing down the ladder. "They've just arrived. I'm doing Vala's room next. What are you guys doing here?"

"I had a visit last night," Jon told her, shutting the door. "From Whistler."

"Who's Whistler?" the Doc asked him, her face blank.

Jon stared at her. She didn't know who Whistler was? Great!

"Creepy demon guy who works for The Powers," Oz filled her in, quoting Buffy.

"Oh," the Doc blinked. "What did he want?"

"Me to tell you that it's open season on Ori soldiers," Jon told her and she frowned. "Among other things."

"What things?" she asked.

"That we're not supposed to find Faith and if we screw up we won't like the consequences," Jon's lips twisted bitterly as he spoke. "Have you got a copy of the prophecy?" It was definitely time he took a good look at it, he thought savagely.

The Doc nodded, rifling through the papers on her desk in search of it. "I don't understand," she said. "Why tell me that I can slay Ori soldiers if we're not supposed to find Faith? And why can I slay them?"

"The last one's easy," Jon told her, taking the sheet of paper she offered him. "The Ori are importing their followers from their home galaxy. Every one we kill weakens them."

"What about the people who've converted since they invaded?" fretted the Doc.

"Not the same," Oz spoke up. "They converted under duress."

"Most of 'em have spent too long worshipping the Goa'uld to pay much more than lip service to the Ori," said Jon, taking a seat as he carefully read the prophecy. "They don't believe the way the soldiers on those ships do."

"So what do we do?" she asked. "I mean, we're supposed to find Faith. It's why we're here!"

"We look for a loophole," Jon told her, waving the prophecy at her.


	18. Gatecrashers

**A/N**

I'm back to college in a couple of weeks so updates are likely to slow down. We've got another episode chapter here folks so if it's not in here, it happened as televised. My thanks and gratitude to all of my reviewers. Without you, continuing probably wouldn't be possible. :)

Enjoy!

**Gatecrashing**

"So," Jool said, staring at her copy of the prophecy. "'By the Calling of the Many, the enemy of Ancients past is alerted' – that's the activation of the slayers and the enemy is the Ori. 'By the visitation of the Unholy Mother and the Descended, they are decided.'"

"That's Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran's visit to the Ori galaxy," said Jon. "'Through the starry pool they descend, crashing through the beachhead to the shores beyond' is their invasion through the Supergate."

"'The Unholy-Made-Human' – that's Adria," Jool told them. "'Draws breath and the Dark One flees the first battle.' We're saying that the Dark One is Faith, yes?" Oz and Jon nodded and she continued, "'Britannia's sleeping hope lies frozen in Avalon' – that's clearly a reference to King Arthur but SG-1's already explored the Avalon cave system and there was no sign of him. 'Awakened, he may stem the tide' – that's good news – 'In time for the board to be made anew by Eygpt's silver-tongued plague.' So the slate's going to be wiped by locusts, frogs, a sudden hailstorm or the death of all the first-born sons of the Ori."

"You forgot pestilence, blood, darkness, boils and flies," Jon told her with a grin.

"That's nine," said Jool. "What's the tenth?"

"Wild animals," Oz reminded them.

"Right!" remembered Jool. "I always forget that one." Catching Oz's eye, she realised that he probably didn't and hurried back to the prophecy, "Anyway, we'll just skip over that bit for now. 'Questers must seek an untranslated word in order to prevail against the fiery rage that sweeps across galaxies.' Where's Andrew when you need him?"

"Convention," Oz told Jool.

"He sniped last minute tickets on Ebay," Jon elaborated with a shrug. "Apparently it's unmissable."

"Well he might have to miss it," Jool grumbled. "We need to know what that word is."

"If Da-Daniel Jackson can't translate it, I doubt Andrew can," Jon snapped, stumbling over Doctor Jackson's name.

"It's worth trying!" Jool argued. "It could be pivotal. What if it turns out to say faith?"

Jon scowled and read the last few lines of the prophecy, biting the words out, "Unless the Dark Slayer leads her Amazons home, the Earth herself is doomed to death and the Ancient fates are sealed.' Pretty conclusive, wouldn'tcha say?"

"Not necessarily," disputed Jool. "Prophecies can be misleading. There was a prophecy saying Buffy would die when she was sixteen!"

"What happened?" Jon asked and Oz exchanged an uneasy look with Jool.

"She died," Jool admitted. "Not for long!"

"And that called Faith," Jon realised. Oz and Jool exchanged looks again.

"Not exactly," Jool hedged. "It's a long story."

"That called Kendra. She died and we got Faith," Oz explained.

"Apparently not that long," Jool said wryly.

"Exactly why is she called the Dark Slayer?" Jon asked them. Oz and the Doc looked at each other and Jon felt irritation flare. He was starting to get really fed up with being kept in the dark.

The Doc hesitated and then told him, "Faith went bad."

"How bad?" he asked her, a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

"About as bad as a slayer can get," Oz told him. "Killed a couple of people, joined up with the Demon Mayor of Sunnydale, tried to kill Buffy and Angel, tortured Wesley, tried to kill Angel again..."

"And we're trying to find her why?" Jon asked them incredulously. Wouldn't they be better off with her safely behind bars?

"She's done her time," Oz said, seeming to read his mind. "Plus, she's helped stop three apocalypses since. She's fighting for redemption now." He glanced down at the prophecy he held in his hand, "Guess she's got a shot at it."

Jon digested his words slowly. It was possibly the longest speech he had ever heard the normally taciturn werewolf make. Like Teal'c, Oz made every word count, meaning that you'd better pay attention when they did speak. And Oz had clearly believed every word he had said.

"Three, you say?" he said. His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten breakfast and the Doc glanced at her watch with a frown.

"I'm going to go and get something for us to eat from the mess," she said, standing. "You guys want anything?"

"Bring cake," Jon told her. "Lots of cake."

**l**

Andrew could barely contain his excitement. He was in the presence of an actual living God! Desperately trying to not to hyperventilate, he stepped up to the table, passing the glossy A4 photograph he had bought for twenty-five dollars over to Him.

"Hi there," William Shatner barely bothered to glance up at the scrawny kid handing him a photo of himself. "What's your name kid?"

For such a little guy, the kid sure made a big thud as he hit the ground.

**l**

On her way back from the mess, carrying a tray heavily loaded with food, Jool saw Vala in the distance. Surprised to see her friend still at the base, she called out to her. Vala stopped and waited for her to catch up, fidgeting in her eagerness to get to wherever she was going.

"Still here?" Jool asked as she reached her. "I thought you and the rest of SG-1 were off on a jolly holiday this morning?"

"We _were_," Vala told her as they walked through the hallways together. "But Colonel Reynold's team was delayed off-world by some sort of rare creature and they need my expertise to help them track it."

"Do you need any help?" Jool offered. "Oz is very good at tracking and I-"

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Vala said breezily. "Besides, aren't you on sick leave? I don't think Colonel Carter would allow it."

"You're probably right," Jool sighed. It was a pity. If they couldn't do what they had been sent here to do then SG-13 needed to make themselves useful in the fight against the Ori to ensure that they were allowed to stay on at the SGC. Having visited other planets, Jool wasn't ready to give it up just yet. And with the news that she was free to slay Ori soldiers, there was a chance that she could make a difference here.

"That's a lot of cake," noticed Vala.

"Been in the gym all morning," Jool lied. "Got to replace those calories somehow."

Vala eyed her dubiously, but it was her turning and she veered off with a wave and a cheerful, "See you!"

Fairly bursting with the news, Jool hurried back to her office and the two men waiting for her to return. Setting the tray down on her desk, she quickly told them everything she had learned.

"This is what I'm talking about!" the Captain said to Oz. "We can convince Carter to let us help-"

"I already asked Vala," Jool interrupted. "She doesn't think Sam would allow it because we're on sick leave. Besides, she was heading to the 'Gateroom when I bumped into her. They've probably left by now."

**l**

"I cannot believe Faith's making us train today," Mallie grumbled to Nya as they made their way to the room they used. "I'm still black and blue from yesterday."

To their surprise however, when they got to the training room, Faith was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, her back straight and her eyes closed. They tip-toed across the room to her.

"Is she asleep?" whispered Nya.

"Sitting up?" scoffed Mallie, but she frowned as she looked at Faith. "Faith? Faith!"

She was just reaching out to shake Faith when Kay walked into the room. Mallie waved her hand in front of Faith's closed eyes instead.

"I thought we were training?" Kay said with a frown.

"So did we," said Mallie.

Kay looked at Faith for a long moment and then shrugged, dropping down to sit opposite her on the floor. After a moment's hesitation Nya, followed by Mallie, joined her, all of them unconsciously imitating Faith's posture as they waited for her to open her eyes. At last, when they were beginning to feel drowsy, Faith spoke.

"Close your eyes," she told them without opening hers and they obeyed. "You're seeking the still small space within. Concentrate on your breathing... In... Out... In... And out..."

**l**

Daniel really wasn't sure this was a good idea. It had seemed like a good idea earlier, when Lord Giles had suggested it. It had still seemed like a good idea when they had left the house. If he had to pinpoint the precise point at which it had started to seem like a bad idea, it was probably when they arrived at the cemetery. Now, Daniel walked through the cemetery, alone apart from the small slayer walking beside him, nonchalantly licking her way through an ice-cream.

"A very bad idea," he said to himself, not realising he was speaking aloud.

"What?" Tiffany asked, looking up at him. A blob of ice-cream decorated the tip of her nose.

"Huh?" said Daniel, looking down at her. He saw the ice-cream and scratched the tip of his nose, hoping she'd get the hint.

Tiffany frowned, looking confused, "You said 'a very bad idea'. What is?"

"Did I?" Daniel temporised, rubbing his nose with the plan of his hand.

"You got a itch?" Tiffany asked him, wondering why he was scratching the tip of his nose.

"No," Daniel sighed, about to tell her that she had ice-cream on her nose.

The undergrowth rustled and Tiffany stiffened. Something hit Daniel like a ton of bricks from the left and sent him sprawling to the ground. He could hear the sound of flesh striking flesh and he pushed himself to his feet, staggering back a step to get a better view of the situation before he threw himself into it.

Little Tiffany was almost invisible, surrounded by a gang of adult vampires. As he watched, he caught of glimpse of her as one of the vampires she was fighting exploded into dust. And now they had noticed he was on his feet, two of them breaking off from the main fight to try and flank him.

Logically, Daniel knew that Tiffany was able to defend herself and that his best chance of helping her lay in defeating the two vampires confronting him. But Daniel was always a man who was ruled by his emotions and he didn't see a slayer battling her natural enemy. He saw a little girl fighting for her life. He ran to help her.

The vampires reached him before he reached her. A hand closed around his collar and Daniel found himself flying backwards through the air. He slammed into a large mausoleum and fell to the ground. Winded, he choked as he tried to gasp in air but he had only seconds to recover before the first of the two vampires was upon him.

Kneeling, Daniel pushed himself upright as the vampire reached him, shoving his stake through its heart. He coughed, temporarily blinded as dust exploded in his face. Great, commented a distant part of his mind as the other vampire arrived and backhanded him to the ground, better take a double dose of antihistamines tonight. Always assuming he lived to take another pill.

He'd lost his stake somewhere between killing the first vampire and landing on the ground. Facing the enraged vampire fast approaching him, Daniel scrambled backwards over the slick grass until he fetched up with his back against a large gravestone. Behind him he could hear the sounds of a brutal fight and he desperately hoped that Tiffany was safe. Desperately, he looked for a weapon he could use.

"I'm gonna kill you!" the vampire growled as Daniel's fingers closed around a memorial vase standing on the gravestone behind him.

He almost grinned in relief as his fingers felt the design carved in bas-relief on the surface of the vase, but that would have given the game away. Tucking his feet underneath him, so that he could quickly rise to his feet, Daniel waited for the vampire to come within striking distance. He didn't have long to wait. With a snarl, the vampire lunged at him.

Three things happened simultaneously. One, the vampire looked extremely surprised. Two, Daniel shot to his feet and dashed the marble vase, cross side down, down onto the vampire's head. Three, an arrow pushed its square head out of the vampire's chest. Two things happened shortly afterwards. The vampire fell to the ground, vanishing in a cloud of dust, and Daniel noticed the girl with the crossbow standing on the mausoleum roof.

"Jeez, Tiff," she grumbled, stepping off the edge of the roof and landing effortlessly on her feet, like a cat. "You could have saved some for the rest of us."

Whirling around, Daniel saw Tiffany, unruffled and unrepentant, standing alone on the cemetery path. She still had ice-cream on her nose. Shadows around them moved and twisted to become slayers as they stepped out of the surrounding darkness. A crashing in the bushes heralded the arrival of their watcher, shepherded by a silent slayer.

"You're supposed to scream for help when you're bait," the mausoleum slayer – Daniel wished he could remember her name. They'd been introduced. Was it Belle? – continued to berate Tiffany. "Not hog all the vampires to yourself."

"I didn't!" Tiffany protested, close to tears. "You and Doctor Jackson got one each."

"Vamp hog!"

"Hey!" Daniel protested as their watcher spoke up.

"Belinda! Tiffany! Enough!" gasped Lady Puddlemere. "Don't... make me... send you... back to the house!" she glared at them as she wheezed. "What must... Doctor Jackson... be thinking?"

"I like him," Belinda volunteered unexpectedly. "He's not bad at fighting," she shrugged. "For an old guy. Can I keep him?"

"Ask Giles," Lady Puddlemere told her, straightening her back as her laboured breaths became less tortured. "Let's move on."

Belinda dropped back to walk beside Daniel, a predatory gleam in her eye. "Notice she didn't say no?" she whispered sultrily into his ear.

Daniel suddenly discovered that there were far more terrifying things than the Goa'uld, Ori or vampires.

**l**

Hank Landry had a good heart. It was buried beneath a brash exterior and blunt speech but he invariably meant well and he genuinely cared about the men and women beneath his command. So when his daughter came to him before he left for the weekend and told him that she suspected that his second-in-command might still be affected by the Mind-Melder, even if the device was no longer active, Hank broached the matter with his usual tact and diplomacy. Meaning, he went at it like a bull in a china shop.

"So, how're you feeling?" he asked jovially, moving his bishop into position for a feint at Mitchell's queen.

"Fine, sir," Mitchell told him, frowning at the board as he tried to puzzle out his next move. "Thank you for asking."

"Good, good," said Hank as Mitchell moved his queen to the only safe position she could reach. "No more tingles?"

Cameron Mitchell was a very different man. Laid-back and easy-going on the surface, he had a stubborn streak a mile wide and a backbone of solid steel. Already uncomfortable with his setting (he was the kind of man who preferred action to relaxation) this unexpected probing by his commanding officer set him on the defensive.

"No, sir," he said blandly, picking up the bottle of beer resting by his elbow and drinking a swig. The General captured one of Cam's knights with a pawn.

"Good..." the General said as Cam captured the pawn with his queen. "Doctor Lam believes that you might still be under the influence of the Mind-Melder," he told Cam, capturing Cam's queen with a bishop that came out of nowhere.

"Sam says her tests are still showing it as inactive," Cam reminded him, staring at the board in consternation.

"Mmmm," General Landry nodded absently as Cam's hand hovered over the board. "There must be more she can run."

"She's done every test she can think of, sir," Cam said carefully, choosing to move one of his pawns closer to Landry's side of the board.

"There must be something else she can do," said Hank, ignoring the pawn and tightening his net around Mitchell's king.

"Nothing I know of sir," Cam told him calmly, moving his sole knight into position to attack the General's undefended queen. "But it's hardly my area of speciality."

General Landry moved his bishop, "Checkmate."

"Yep," Cam admitted, knocking over his king. "Too good for me sir," he drank some of his beer, hoping the change of subject would take. To his relief, it seemed to.

"Pandering to the ego of a senior officer, Mitchell?" General Landry asked him with mock-sternness.

"No, truthfully, I always hated the game," Cam admitted honestly, settling back in his chair. "But if you happen to have a Playstation, I will happily kick your ass at SOCOM 3."

"Good," Landry told him. "I want you to feel that you can be honest with me."

"Yes, sir," said Cam, not liking where this was going.

"But I suppose that's easier for me than it is for you," mused Hank. "I am the General."

"No," said Mitchell. "I think it's probably harder for you in some ways."

"Oh," Hank said, teasing him a little. "Lonely at the top and all that, huh?"

"No," Mitchell hesitated, thinking carefully before he spoke. "More not knowing what people think of your decisions."

Hank laughed. Worrying about what people thought of him was the least of his troubles! "Relax, son," he told Mitchell, figuring it was safe to return to a variation on the theme he had introduced earlier. "I was, uh, I was thinking about what you said to me last week, about not being in charge of anything."

"I'm just used to a clearer chain of command," Cam told him.

"You could have picked any team you wanted. You chose to make it your personal mission to get Colonel Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c back together," General Landry reminded him.

"That's true and I wouldn't change it for the world," Cam told him honestly.

"You said you wanted to learn from the best."

"Yes I did. It's just..." Cam struggled to find the words to explain it. "After almost dying, like I did, there was a part of me that figured... I could do anything. Well, since coming to the SGC, I have learned that I can't handle any of this without SG-1," and possibly, without Faith, he thought to himself. How was it possible to miss someone you had only known for a week so much?

"I believe in you Colonel," General Landry told him intently.

"Thank you sir," said Cam, a little creeped out and amused by his earnestness.

"But we're getting our asses kicked," Hank said over the top of him, warming to his theme.

"Yes we are," Cam agreed blandly.

"We're not going to get medals for participation."

"No, sir."

"We win or we die," Landry told Cam baldly.

Cam hesitated, his beer bottle almost at his lips. "I prefer winning," he said with quiet determination. If this was the General's idea of a pep talk, then it stank!

"And you started by bringing SG-1 back together. I need you to continue working together if we're going to have any hope," Hank told him. "Your job is to make sure that happens. I need to know I can rely on you."

"Very good, sir," said Mitchell, nodding his head in understanding.

The two men sipped their beers, each assessing the other. Hank silent cursed the stubborn son-of-a-bitch. Why wouldn't he open up? That was the whole point of this weekend. To get SG-1 to relax and bond. It was a prospect that was looking more and more unlikely as the weekend slipped away.

"As long as we're talking shop, sir," said Cam. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Hank said generously, hoping that the Colonel was about to confide in him. "I want you to feel you can ask me anything."

"Why wasn't I told that we had recovered Faith's bag?" asked Cam. It still stung.

"An oversight," Hank told him with a frown. "I assumed Doctor Jackson would inform you."

"And he thought he already had," Cam finished wryly. "It's not just that, sir. It seems like I'm always the last person to know when SG-13 makes a break-through."

General Landry was still frowning, and it was his turn to go on the defensive, "You know that the only people cleared to read their reports before they're sent to the Council are the President and myself."

"Yes, sir," Cam agreed. "And I understand the security reasons for that but dammit, sir... Vala knows more about what they're doing than I do!"

"I understand she and Doctor Wilson have struck up a friendship," Hank commented, hoping to change the subject. It didn't work.

"It's just..." Cam hesitated and then put his figurative cards on the table. "I can't help but feel responsible for the situation. It was my idea to take Faith to the Supergate."

"There's no point beating yourself up now, son," Hank told him gently. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty. It's not your fault we have to deal with SG-13."

"No, that's not what I meant, sir," Cam told him and then frowned. "They're not that bad, sir. They're surprisingly good at following orders for a mainly civilian team."

"Says the man with two civilians and a probational civilian on his team," Hank remarked wryly, hoping to distract him with the mention of Vala as one of his team-members. Once again, it didn't work.

"What I meant was, I blame myself for Faith's situation," Mitchell clarified.

"Why?" Hank asked. "Faith chose to come back to the mountain and go through the Stargate. Besides, if I'm reading that prophecy right, it's probably a good thing she did. She could turn out to be an ace up our sleeve."

"And if she dies?" Cam voiced the fear that kept him awake at nights.

"Then the Earth is doomed!" Hank paraphrased the last line of the prophecy in dread tones, opening his eyes wide for dramatic effect. "Besides," he said in more normal tones. "I got the distinct impression that you two couldn't stand each other. Isn't that why you destroyed the Mind-Melder?"

"If you say so, sir," Mitchell said mildly, his defences back up.

He casually drank the last of his beer and set the empty bottle down on the table. The two men eyed each other over the forgotten chessboard for long moment before the Colonel spoke.

"If it's all the same to you, sir," he said. "I think I'll turn in now."

"Sure," Hank agreed companionably, waving his beer bottle in emphasis. "I'll just finish this before I head off to bed."

He watched Mitchell leave and as soon as his second-in-command was out of sight, his relaxed smile disappeared, replaced by a worried frown. He'd never guessed that Mitchell's attachment to Faith ran so deep. It could become a problem if the Mind-Melder was indeed still active. But there nothing to suggest it might be and Caroline believed that Mitchell's symptoms were probably lingering after-effects. Still, at least he had managed to get Mitchell to open up to him, if only briefly.

**l**

Smiling politely at the Minbari who had just checked in as he left, Sadie turned her attention to the next in line. And what a hottie he was! Unusually, he wasn't in costume. Unless you counted jeans, a grey shirt, black leather jacket and sunglasses as a costume. Sadie leant forward so that he had a better view of her ample cleavage, displayed to advantage in the gold Leia bikini she wore.

"Hi!" she chirped brightly. "Welcome to-"

"Has Andrew Wells checked in yet?" he asked abruptly, cutting her off.

Sadie's welcoming smile slipped slightly and she tidied the papers in front of her. "I'm afraid that we can't divulge that information," she told him regretfully.

The hottie reached into his leather jacket and pulled out his wallet. Sadie's smile slipped entirely as she wondered if he was about to attempt to bribe her. All he did though was flip it open to show her his ID and Sadie learnt that he was Captain Jonathon O'Neill, of the Air Force. Her appreciation of his body went up a notch as she mentally pictured him in uniform. Yummy!

"It's a matter of National Security," he told her and instantly captured the attention of everyone around them.

"Oh," said Sadie, dumbfounded. "Um..." She rifled through the pages in front of her until she reached the W's, and then ran her finger down the page until she found Wells, Andrew, "He's here."

She looked back up at the Captain to see what he wanted her to do next. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking through the sunglasses he wore.

"Great. Could you get him for me?" the Captain asked, speaking to her as if she was a child.

"I'll go tell JB to make an announcement," Tom offered, shooting up out of his seat beside her.

"Thanks," Captain O'Neil smiled at Tom as he dashed off, leaving the group of Starfleet officers he had been processing milling at the desk.

Wishing he had smiled at her, Sadie gazed helplessly up at the cute Captain as he stepped to one side, his place taken by a short Stormtrooper, who also seemed unable to stop staring at him. Reluctantly, Sadie did her job, always hyper-aware of the Air Force Captain waiting at the end of the check-in desk.

Minutes passed and he began to fidget. Sadie crossed her legs, offering him a view of the golden curves of her thigh. She had a feeling that she'd given him a bad first impression and she tried to correct it the only way she knew how. He fidgeted more, glancing away and Sadie heaved a sigh that set her bosom quivering. You couldn't win them all.

Jon fidgeted as he waited impatiently for Andrew to arrive. He really hadn't wanted to pull the National Security card and he fervently hoped that Hank never heard about it. But with Princess Leia stone-walling him, he'd had no other option. Where the hell was Andrew?

Wondering why he'd been called to the check-in desk, Andrew hurried into the room. When he saw Jon waiting by the desk, he panicked, not knowing why he was there. Was something wrong? He rushed over to him.

"Jon!" he called as soon as he was within shouting distance. "What's wrong? Is it-?"

"What the heck are you wearing?" Jon asked, cutting him off before he could say anything he shouldn't.

Andrew glanced down at himself as the two met, remembering the costume he wore. "You like?" he asked, spreading his arms wide so Jon could get the full effect. "I'm Colonel Danning."

"I see that," Jon told him.

"Why are you here?" Andrew asked him, about to launch into another round of quick-fire questions.

"You turned your cell off," Jon cut him off again.

Andrew frowned, "I forgot to pack my charger."

"C'mon," said Jon, jerking his head towards the exit. "The Doc needs you."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when we're in the car."

"But-"

"Shh!"

"B-"

"Shh!"

"Jo-"

"I've got a whole bag of shh!"

Stories of the episode spread like Chinese whispers through the convention. By the time it ended on Sunday, the rumours had grown until Andrew Wells was well on his way to becoming a legend. Those who had met him found themselves almost as in demand as the actors and crew paid to attend as people clamoured to learn more about the mysterious man pulled out from the convention by a highly trained squad of SEALs in the name of National Security. Was he good or evil? One thing was certain. He had become a hero.

**l**

Normally, when Cam ran, he could put all of his problems behind him and just enjoy the pure rush of physical exercise. Today though, as he ran through the woods surrounding General O'Neill's cabin, he couldn't stop thinking about his conversation with General Landry last night.

It was understandable that the General would think that he and Faith disliked each other. In many ways it was preferable to the truth. The truth that he didn't dare admit, even to himself. That he loved her.

He was the first to admit that they hadn't got off to the best start. She'd looked at him with that predatory look in her eyes, her feet up on the briefing room table, and he'd felt threatened. He hadn't understood it at the time, but he knew now that it was a natural response to the fact that she was a slayer. He'd made that rookie mistake with the Mind-Melder and they'd woken up mind-linked. Then he'd found out about vampires and the girls who slayed them and felt even more threatened by her. She'd spent the first few days of their mind-link imagining new and interesting ways to kill demons and he'd been intimidated by her. He'd hated it and by extension, her. It hadn't helped that she called him Flyboy.

It wasn't until he'd seen her in action against Teal'c, and accidentally put her in a coma for a day, that he'd started to see beyond the slayer of the night to the broken woman beneath. Broken, but slowly putting herself back together, one painful piece at a time.

He'd thought she had no interest in him and he'd been careful to shield his growing attraction from her. It wasn't until their final explosive shared vision that he realised she was as drawn to him as he was to her. He knew she had a boyfriend, he'd seen him in her thoughts. In hindsight, her withdrawal afterwards only showed her character. They'd gone their separate ways; him to Camelot and her back to Cleveland and her Robin.

But she'd come back to him, arriving on Camelot just in time to save his life and defeat the Black Knight. And he'd repaid her by dragging her off to the Supergate and leaving her onboard the Korolev with Jackson. They'd escaped the destruction of the Korolev by using the rings to transport themselves to one of the Ori ships and when Cam had been in a position to rescue them, he'd only been able to retrieve Jackson and Vala.

They'd had such a short time together that it was no wonder he hadn't realised his feelings for her before they had parted with a kiss. A kiss that he hadn't mentioned in his official reports, just as he had never mentioned their shared vision. So it was no wonder that General Landry still thought that they hated one another.

"Help! Help!" the panicked cry came from ahead and Cam slowed to a halt, practically catching the sprinting man who barrelled into view.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cam held his hands up, keeping out of the way of the hunting rifle the terrified man was waving around.

"Get out of here!" the hunter warned desperately as Cam saw his opportunity.

"Watch where you're pointing that weapon," Cam told him as he grabbed the barrel and smoothly lifted the rifle out of the wild-eyed hunter's tight grasp. Now that the weapon was safely dealt with, he could concentrate on the man, "What's wrong?"

"Something attacked us, man," said the hunter. He shook like a man on the verge of PTSD as he pointed in the direction Cam had been headed. "It came out of nowhere. It attacked my buddy Mike!"

"Alright, alright," Cam said, trying to soothe him. "Take me to Mike."

**l**

"Here we are," Jool said to Oz, glancing around the deserted corridor as she came to a halt outside a room. "Storeroom twenty-nine. I've heard stories about this place."

"What if someone comes in?" Oz asked with a frown as Jool swiped her card through the reader and the door clicked as it unlocked.

"Most of the linguists work Monday to Friday," Jool told him. "I checked the ones assigned to teams and they're all off-wor... Oh my."

She had opened the door to reveal a large storeroom crammed full of books. Large shelving units stood in militant rows with only enough space to walk, single-file, between them. The shelves were stuffed with books, the largest at the bottom and the smallest up at the top. Books lay stacked on top of those shelved vertically, filling the spaces between shelves with a multi-coloured hodgepodge of spines. A large rack, just visible through the stacks and taking up almost the entire back wall, was jam-packed with scrolls. They filed into the room and stood staring at the enormous task that lay in front of them.

"We may be some time," Jool said faintly.

Oz nodded.

**l**

Arriving at the SGC, Andrew in tow, Jon was surprised to find the hallways unusually busy for a Saturday. In the early years of the SGC, what day it was would have made no difference to the amount of traffic in the halls. In later years however, efforts had been made to give civilian personnel a more normal working week, to help them maintain their cover stories. However, it wasn't civilian personnel rushing through the hallways. It was military.

"Hey!" Jon called to a nearby SF, stopping the man as he dashed past. "What's going on?"

"SG-12 found another creature on P2R-866, sir," the SF informed him.

Another one? And from the look of things, it had only just been discovered. This was their chance! With Hank gone for the weekend he might be able to convince Carter to let them help hunt the second creature. If she hadn't already left.

"What's Colonel Carter doing about it?" Jon asked the SF, making an internal bet with himself that she hadn't. She wouldn't be the Carter he'd known if she had.

"She's sent SG-14 and 15 to assist," the SF told him, bristling at the imagined hint of a slur against the Colonel.

"Carry on," Jon told him. The SF hurried away, glancing suspiciously back over his shoulder at them as Jon turned to Andrew, "The others said they'd be in storeroom twenty-nine. You know where that is?"

"Of course!" Andrew said indignantly. He was technically attached to the linguistic department wasn't he? Even if he did spend most of his time in the kitchen.

"Cool," said Jon. "I'll meet you there."

"Where are you going?" Andrew called after him as he began to walk away.

"To talk to Carter!" Jon shouted back.

Andrew frowned, "Why?"

He got no reply.

**l**

Jon tracked Carter down in her office. He knew he shouldn't have tried Hank's office first. His former second-in-command was hunched over her computer, a familiar look of concentration on her face. No, that was wrong. She wasn't his, never had been; and he could never claw back even a tenth of what Jack had once had with her. Jon knocked lightly on her door. Carter looked up, surprise flooding her face as she recognised him.

"Sir!" she exclaimed and then looked embarrassed and confused.

"Colonel," Jon returned the greeting, emphasising her higher rank and setting a tone of formality to the encounter. "Have you got a minute?"

Carter glanced at her screen, clearly aching to get back to work, but waved him inside. Jon shut the door behind him but remained close to it.

"What can I do for you?" Carter asked him with an awkward smile, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Let SG-13 help find the second creature," Jon told her boldly. "Hear me out," he added when she opened her mouth to issue what would clearly be a denial of his request. "You need to find and neutralise it as quickly as possible without alerting the natives to your presence. Who better than SG-13 for the job? The Doc was practically built for this sort of thing and Oz has got that supernatural sense of smell to help us track it."

"Aren't you supposed to be on sick leave?" Carter pointed out and Jon could see that she was wavering.

"Carter..." he said and sighed as he decided to be honest with her. "I'll level with you. We need this," Carter opened her mouth to say something and he continued talking, overriding any objections she might have. "You know we're not accepted here. Most people look at us and see four kids who somehow got given a team and a buncha privileges the rest of 'em haven't got. It's not fair on Oz, Andrew or the Doc! They sure as hell haven't done anything to deserve it. Those kids are giving their all to this place and they get treated like crap. Worse than crap!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" Carter asked him softly.

"Give them the chance to prove themselves," Jon urged her. "They'll win their respect. They're good kids."

"How soon can you assemble your team?" Carter sighed, resigned to sending them. She felt that she owed it to him really. She could have made more of an effort to see him after he left the SGC but it she had found it far too awkward to be around the clone.

"Give me ten minutes," Jon told her eagerly, turning to go.

"Captain!" Carter's authoritarian tones rang out, stopping him in his tracks. "Your team is meant to be on sick leave. What are they doing on the base?"

"Visiting the Doc?" Jon offered the excuse with a grin. "Besides, Ma'am, when did that ever stop us?"

Sam remained staring after him for several minutes after he had left. What had she just agreed to? At least it would give General Landry an excuse to shout when he found out. The General did love to shout but she certainly wasn't looking forward to the dressing down she would receive at his hands.

But Jon was right. SG-13 were treated badly by the majority of the personnel on the base. Too many people had been passed over deserved a chance to prove themselves to the rest of the base. Her sense of justice demanded that they be given the chance to earn the acceptance they should have been given. And she'd better get to downstairs to brief them before they left.

**l**

Mallie and Nya stood in the doorway to the mess staring at Faith with bafflement. For her part, the Tau'ri slayer ignored them, intent on her self-imposed task.

"What is she doing?" Nya asked Mallie quietly, her gaze never leaving Faith.

"I have no idea," Mallie admitted, her eyes also fixed on Faith.

Faith had found the supply of parchment amongst the tel'tak's cargo. She must have spent hours cutting the small rectangles stacked in front of her and now she hunched over one of them, her tongue stuck out between her teeth as she laboriously drew designs onto one of the rectangles. Why she was going to so much trouble, they had no idea. Perhaps she was planning to use the rectangles in their training sessions?

**l**

Alert for any sign of the Ori present on P2R-866, the two member of SG15 left behind to guard the 'Gate tucked themselves further into their cover as the Stargate flared into life. To their surprise however, the four figures that stepped through the rippling wormhole wore the characteristic uniforms of the SGC, although they were wildly different in appearance from the standard SG-team. Take the shortest one's bright purple hair for example.

Carefully, Captain Mike Underwood wormed his way out of the undergrowth, careful to leave as little sign of his passing as he could. Standing upright, he strolled across the clearing to greet the newcomers.

"Captain O'Neil," he greeted the notoriously young commander of SG-13 without a hint of welcome in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Colonel Carter sent us to help with your critter problem," O'Neil told him, slipping a pair of sunglasses on over his eyes. "Lotta trees," he commented to the linguist on the team, Andrew Something. He wasn't even a Doctor, Mike thought bitterly.

"I thought SG-13 was on sick leave?" Mike said suspiciously.

"Yah, well..." O'Neil shrugged. "Colonel Carter thought we could help. If you want, we could turn right around and tell her you didn't think so."

Mike Underwood had fifteen years and countless engagements on the upstart kid in front of him. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't hesitate to send them back, or at least check out their story. But the circumstances weren't normal. Technically he and O'Neil were the same rank but O'Neil commanded his own team, which placed him higher in the chain of command. Add to that the fact that Colonel Carter would be pissed if he sent them back, undermining her authority while General Landry and Colonel Mitchell were gone. And he had no idea if the orders for their presence on P2R-866 had originated with General Landry or not. Mike caved.

"Sir," he said into his radio. "SG-13 has arrived to help with the search."

"SG-13?" the commander of SG-14, Colonel Blasdale replied over the radio. "I thought they were on sick leave?"

"Colonel Carter sent them, sir," Mike told him.

There was a pause before Colonel Blasdale replied in which SG-13 exchanged glances with one another and Mike shuffled uncomfortably in front of them. It rankled that Colonel Carter had sent SG-Juniors, as they had become known shortly after their arrival, to help them. So far the team imposed on the SGC had only brought trouble to it.

"I guess we could do with more people in the north-east quadrant," came Colonel Blasdale's grudging reply.

"Actually sir," O'Neil jumped into the conversation. "If it's all the same to you, we'd like to start out at the site of the attack."

There was a longer pause before the Colonel's reply came and Mike could only imagine what Blasdale, an old SGC hand, must be saying to the men with him.

"Sure," Blasdale said finally. "Go ahead Captain."

"Thank you, sir," O'Neil said into his radio before he turned to his team. "Okay, campers, let's move out. Which way?" he asked Mike.

"Three klicks that way," Mike told him pointing.

He watched them leave before he returned to his position. He hoped the creature ate them!

**l**

Lord Giles' collection was everything he had promised, and more. The large collection was filled with books that Daniel had never heard of or had only seen mentioned in references. It almost made up for Belinda's attentions and Tiffany's incessant questions about Jon. The fact that Lord Giles' collection was stored on the walls of his office wasn't the only reason that Daniel had taken to spending his time in the room. Although the Head Watcher was always pleased to see any slayer who visited him there, the girls were hesitant to disturb him when he was in his office, perhaps knowing the tremendous responsibilities he dealt with there. His phone constantly rang, and the calls came from all over the world. When he wasn't on the telephone, Lord Giles oversaw the day-to-day running of this Council House and all of the others in the United Kingdom, supervised the training of new watchers and headed the Council's research team. It was no wonder the man was grey. But in all the time Daniel had spent there, he'd never seen Lord Giles anything other than unflappable.

Daniel was currently sat in an armchair in front of the coffee table as he translated a book that was, unbelievably, written in Ancient and that Lord Giles had told him was supposedly a volume of Merlin's prophecies. So far, Daniel had read prophecies about Apophis, Atlantis, Anubis, and the replicators. He was hoping to finish the volume before he left. Now, Daniel turned the page and found himself reading what he had come to think of as 'Faith's prophecy'. He looked up, intending to ask Lord Giles' opinion on the subject, only to find that he was in the middle of a telephone conversation and appeared extremely agitated.

"I'll come at once," the Head Watcher was saying as he cleaned his glasses. "She will?" he popped the glasses back on his face. "Five minutes? Excellent," he paused, clearly listening to the person on the other end of the line. "We'll find her," he told them. "I just do. I'll see you in five minutes Buffy. Bye."

Daniel frowned as Lord Giles hung up and immediately began sorting through the various papers on his desk. Wasn't Buffy in Scotland?

"Sharon," Lord Giles said into the intercom system on his desk. "I have to go to Scotland. Can you inform Peters that he's in charge while I'm away?"

"Okay," Lord Giles' secretary, the sister of a slayer activated in the battle of Sunnydale, replied. "You want me to order you a car?"

"Not necessary," Lord Giles told her. "I shall be taking alternative transportation."

"Bad news?" Daniel asked.

"Ah," said Lord Giles, seeming to remember he was there. "Yes. Buffy's sister, Dawn, has disappeared. We think that she's been kidnapped. I'm afraid that I won't be able to see you off." As he spoke, Lord Giles was pulling books seemingly at random from the shelves that lined his office.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Daniel offered.

"No. Yes!" Lord Giles indicated the book Daniel was translating. "Have you found any mention of the Key?"

Confused, Daniel frowned, "A key?"

"Don't worry about it," Lord Giles advised. "What time does your flight leave?"

"Eight in the morning," Daniel told him as the peer of the realm crossed the room to his desk and sat down. "Maybe she's just run away," he suggested hopefully.

Lord Giles snort as he began to write something. "Unlikely," he told Daniel. "Dawn seems to manage to get herself kidnapped at least once a month." He paused, frowning. "Odd... it's not Tuesday."

Opening his mouth to ask what the day of the week had to do with anything (and attempt to find out if there could possibly be someone who had been kidnapped more than him), Daniel forgot what he was about to say as a red-haired woman strode out of the bookcases behind Lord Giles. He left his mouth open.

"Ready to go Giles?" the woman asked in a Californian accent.

"One minute," Lord Giles replied, never taking his eyes off the page he was writing on. "Willow, this is Doctor Jackson from the SGC, he's here researching Merlin and Morgan le Fay. Doctor Jackson, meet Willow Rosenburg, the witch who activated the slayers," Lord Giles' pride in the young witch was evident even though he had yet to look up at her.

"Ooh!" Willow exclaimed, smiling brightly at Daniel. "How's Oz? Is he better now we've had the full moon? He should be better. Giles told us all about those werewolf experiments that were done in the-"

"Willow..." Lord Giles said gently.

"Right, babbling. Sorry, shutting up now."

"Uh," said Daniel, wondering if she'd breathed at all even as he mentally translated what she'd said. "He seemed fine when I left."

"Good," Willow smiled happily. "So why the Arthurian research? I thought the Stargate was an Ancient Egypt kinda thing?"

"Morgan le Fay and Merlin were Ancients who descended in the time of King Arthur," Daniel explained. "I'm trying to discover where they went after they left Earth."

"Ancient whats?" Willow asked curiously. Daniel threw a helpless look at Lord Giles who was about halfway down the page he was writing and showed no signs of stopping.

"Alterrans," Daniel told her finally. "They were here billions of years ago. They, uh, they evolved in a different galaxy and fled to ours to escape persecution in theirs. They learned to ascend to a higher plane."

"I'm guessing that's not the evil, ruins-your-graduation, demon-y kind of ascension," said Willow, and it didn't sound like a question.

"I'm ready," Lord Giles announced, standing.

"Goody," said Willow, grabbing his arm. "Bye Doctor Jackson. Tell Oz I said hi!"

"Bye," Daniel said bemusedly as they stepped forward into thin air.

**l**

They hadn't covered half of the distance to the place where SG-12 had been attacked when Oz suddenly stopped. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. His team halted, turning back to look at him when they realised he had was no longer walking through the forest with them.

"What's up?" Jon asked, walking back to him.

"Weird smell," Oz told him. He pointed, "That way."

"You and the Doc take point," Jon ordered. "I'll watch our six."

"What about me?" Andrew asked as they rearranged themselves and started to file in the direction Oz had indicated.

"Don't get eaten," Jon told him, following his team through the woods.

Oz and the Doc set a rapid pace that Jon and Andrew were hard pressed to match. Consequently the two entirely human members of SG-13 crashed through the undergrowth. Even Jon with his special forces training had a hard time being stealthy. Finally, aware that they were making enough noise to scare off any number of critters, he ordered Oz and the Doc to slow down. They were approaching the Ori-controlled settlement as well and would need to exercise caution to avoid being seen by the locals.

"How much further anyway?" he asked Oz.

"Not far," said Oz.

"I'm starting to feel something decidedly... off," the Doc added. "We're almost there."

"Okay, stick together," Jon told them all. "Eyes peeled folks." As they moved off through the woods Jon activated his radio, "Colonel Blasdale? Thought you might want to know we're currently tracking the critter about quarter of a klick east-east-north of the settlement. Heading west."

"We're half a klick north of your position," Blasdale replied. "How fresh is your trail?

Jon glanced at Oz. The werewolf sniffed and shrugged.

"Close," he said. Jon glared at him exasperatedly.

"At this pace, I think we're about five minutes behind," the Doc supplied helpfully.

"We're less than quarter of a klick away," Jon told Blasdale.

"Sir?" a new voice issued from their radios. "We're about a klick west of their position."

"Double-time it Major," ordered Blasdale.

Almost soundlessly, SG-13 moved through the trees, ranging out but staying within sight of one another. There was no need for any of them to speak (although Andrew tried) and in fact, doing so might give their position away to the critter (Jon's eventual justification in his official report for the verbal smackdown he gave Andrew). The minutes slipped by and Jon could just see a clearing through the trees in the distance when first Oz and then the Doc stopped abruptly.

Jon waited impatiently and was rewarded when, almost simultaneously, the two supernatural beings began moving again, making a minor change to their course. Slowly, the team made their way towards the clearing and their first sight of the mutated critter.

As soon as he caught sight of the distorted limbs and the bulging growths of the creature crouched over the carcass of some sort of indigenous rabbit, Jon pulled out his zat, careful not to activate it. This close to the settlement, they couldn't risk the possibility of their gunshots being heard and would have to rely on Goa'uld weapons to avoid arousing suspicion.

"Colonel Blasdale?" Jon said into his radio, talking very very quietly. "We have a visual confirmation on the target."

"Do not engage until we arrive to assist," Blasdale ordered. "Our ETA is one minute. Repeat, do not engage.

"Understood, sir," Jon told him, disappointed. He signalled his team to hold back and wait, even though he was pretty sure at least two of them had heard the whole conversation.

About to settle into a more comfortable position, Jon spun around as a loud crack echoed around the wood. Sheepishly, Andrew lifted his foot off the broken branch.

"Oops," he said guiltily.

With a snarl, the critter sprang up to face them. Swearing, Jon activated his zat, a chirruping sound beside him telling him that Oz had followed his example as the creature lunged towards them. Two bolts of energy and a silver dagger flew towards the creature as Andrew fumbled to release his zat from its holster. All three struck their target and the critter collapsed to the ground, its momentum carrying a few feet further.

Bushes at the edge of the clearing rustled and Colonel Blasdale and his men emerged. The experienced Colonel took in the situation at a glance.

"O'Neil!" the Colonel barked. "Did I or did I not order to hold your fire until I arrived? Report!"

Jon stepped into the clearing, his team close behind him in silent solidarity. He found himself in a difficult situation. On one hand, he could clearly remember bawling Blasdale out for a rookie mistake back when the now-Colonel had first joined the SGC and he could see by the look in Blasdale's eyes that he could remember it too; the leader of SG-14 was one of the few members of the SGC who knew who, or rather, what, Jon really was. On the other hand, Blasdale was his superior now and SG-13 had disobeyed a direct order.

"It was my fault!" Andrew confessed surprisingly. "Don't blame Jon. I stepped on a twig and it heard us. It was self-defence!"

"Who threw the knife?" Blasdale sounded amused, thank God.

"Me," the Doc admitted, raising her hand.

"Good shot," Blasdale admired. "Right in the gut."

Unbelievably, the Doc blushed and simpered at him. It was enough to make Jon feel sick. Fortunately, Blasdale stuck to business.

"We need to bag it and get it back to the SGC as quickly as possible," he said, looking expectantly at SG-13.

"Don't look at us!" Jon told him. "We came, we saw, we slayed and now it's back to sick leave for us."

On the opposite side of the clearing, two members off SG-12 burst into the clearing. Assessing the situation in a moment, they sauntered towards the group.

"Ah, excellent," Blasdale said, turning to them. "Volunteers. Off you go then," he said to SG-13. "I'm sure you've got episodes of The Simpsons to watch or something."

"Actually I was planning on twiddling my thumbs tonight," Jon told him loftily. "You heard him kids, let's move out."

**l**

Sam kept SG-13's debriefing short, partly because she was itching to call General Landry with the good news and partly because she was very aware that technically they shouldn't be in the SGC until Monday. She really had no idea how she was going to explain it to the General. It had been worth the gamble though. SG-13 had tracked and neutralised the creature in a record time. Closing the meeting with a reminder to go straight to the infirmary for the post-mission check-up, Sam watched them stand, laughing and joking between themselves as they headed for the door.

"Captain," Sam called before they left the room and they all stopped, turning back to face her. "Good work," she praised.

The clone's eyes (and she really had to stop calling him that) lit up, "Yes Ma'am!" he grinned and snapped off a sloppy salute. "Okay, folks," he turned to his team, chivvying them out of the room. "You heard the lady. Time to face the needles."

Sam couldn't help but grin at that as she stood and made her way towards General Landry's office. It reminded her of times past, when General O'Neill had been a lowly Colonel and things had been much simpler. At least, she thought that they had been more simple. Hadn't they? Thinking back, Sam remembered the chaotic early years of the SGC and was forced to concede that some things never changed.

Picking up the phone, she dialled General O'Neill's cabin from memory. General Landry picked up on the second ring.

"Landry," he barked.

"General," said Sam. "It's Colonel Carter, sir."

"What is it Carter?" General Landry sounded weary. "Not another creature?"

"No, sir," Same told him. "In fact, we're bringing the body of the second creature back now."

"Well done, Colonel," the General still sounded as though he was having a bad day. "We've managed to bag a human Trust Operative of our own."

"What?" asked Sam, shocked. She was almost tempted to sink down into General Landry's chair. Almost, but not quite.

"Exactly," the General said dryly. "He was using the missing Sodan cloak. We found a car filled with surveillance and recording equipment about half a mile from here. I'm supposed to be going through it all while Mitchell guards him until the local MP's arrive. There's a good chance he heard us talking about Faith and SG-13 last night."

That... wasn't good. This time Sam really did sink into General Landry's chair. With the Trust under Goa'uld control, there was no telling what they might do with the information. It was a large part of the reason why such strict security measures had been put in place around SG-13, which in its turn was responsible for a substantial amount of the resentment against the fledgling team on the base. It had already been proven that even those stringent measures hadn't been enough, with Ba'al's recent visit to Earth. The Goa'uld System Lord had known of SG-13's creation and mission statement but little else and had even refused to speak to anyone else initially, just so that he could meet them. Who know what he would do with the kind of information Cam and General Landry might have been discussing.

"There is of course," General Landry was saying, "Always the chance that he might not have had time to report it. Mitchell does have some form of sleep apnoea that should have kept him busy. What else have you learned?"

"Well, sir, the reason the creatures are entering our dimension is our fault," Sam told him.

"How's that?" asked General Landry.

"When we first starting using the Sodan devices, we noticed that they emitted a significant amount of radiation," Sam reminded him.

"This is different to the radiation given off by the interdimensional creatures?" General Landry checked.

"Yes, sir, but not unrelated," said Sam. "We made modifications to shield the radioactive emission in order to make them safer for human use."

"I'm guessing there was a practical reason for the radioactive output," guessed General Landry.

"Doctor Redden tested the creatures for a reaction to the radiation given off by the unshielded cloaking devices," Sam informed him. "They're _repelled_ by it."

"And the Sodan would have been protected from that radiation by their symbiotes," General Landry realised.

"Exactly," said Sam. "We thought that the radiation was a coincidental by-product of the technology."

"When it was actually performing a vital function," General Landry sighed. "Do we have any idea how frequent this dimensional breach might be?"

"No, sir. It appears to be a random occurrence," Sam told him. She hesitated slightly, grimacing, before she gave him the bad news, "But given how long the Trust Operative was using the Sodan device to stay hidden, I'd say that whatever's on the loose around the cabin is probably a lot worse than a grizzly."

"I had a feeling you were going to say that," General Landry said gloomily. "Round up as many available troops as you can, I want this thing found as quickly as possible."

**l**

SG-13 were just leaving the infirmary when the other teams that had been on P2R-866 with them walked in. Unlike most occasions when SG-13 found themselves facing another team, there were no sudden awkward silences or laborious avoidance of eye-contact on the part of the other teams. Instead, SG-13 were greeted with grins and backslaps, and they left the infirmary on a wave of camaraderie. Colonel Blasdale ducked out of the infirmary with them, holding Jon back with a light touch on his arm.

"Have you heard about the Trust spy Colonel Mitchell and General Landry found up near O'...?" Blasdale started to ask before he remembered who he was talking to. "Uh... in Minnesota."

"No," said Jon, concerned.

"He was using the missing cloaking device," Blasdale told him. "Colonel Carter thinks that there's a good chance we've got another critter on our hands. We're moving out in twenty minutes. You should come."

"Thanks," said Jon, thinking hard. Carter was unlikely to authorise a second mission for them when they were supposed to be on sick leave but his team's... unique abilities would come in useful in the forest surrounding the cabin.

Blasdale nodded and slipped back into the infirmary. Jon turned to join his team, his brain still thinking over the possibilities. He'd definitely used up all the favours he could with Carter today but there had to be another way of getting to the cabin. Once they were there it was unlikely that Hank would send them back. It was still a possibility but Jon was confident that he could persuade his old friend that they should stay.

"About time!" Andrew exclaimed as Jon reached him and the others. The Doc pushed herself away from the wall and she and Oz looked at Jon with expectant curiosity. "I can't wait to hit the showers."

"Change of plan," Jon told them. "You've got ten minutes to get to the mess and get some chow. We move out in twelve."

**l**

Today's training session was unusually different. Not because of the scraps of paper Faith had been working on (they never made an appearance) but because Faith had them fighting each other, two on one. It was the first time they had done anything like it and Faith had Kay and Nya working together against Mallie. It was part of her ongoing drive to spur Nya and Kay into fighting aggressively rather than defensively, and to force Mallie into thinking defensively. So far, after a few false starts, it was working.

"Good!" Faith called out as Kay successfully pinned Mallie to the wall. "Again."

**l**

Jon's plan for getting his team to the cabin was simple. They arrived five minutes before everyone else and took seats at the back of one of the trucks. Slowly, the truck began to fill up. SG-13 encountered a few curious and unfriendly looks, but no-one challenged their right to be there. When the back of the truck was crammed full of soldiers, the tailgate was put up and the vehicle lurched as the convoy set off. They were off. And they hadn't even had to resort to Jon's (nonexistent) Plan B.

The atmosphere in the truck was decidedly frosty for the first few miles, until Jon broke it by deliberately turning to Oz and announcing clearly, "Five bucks says it used to be a squirrel."

It's strange how a betting pool can ease the tension.

The miles sped by and the older SG-teams fell to reminiscing. The wildly exaggerated (and not so wildly exaggerated) stories of the 'old SG-1' made Jon wince and he concentrated on squishing Andrew and the Doc every time they tried to tell supernatural war stories of their own. Only a handful of SGC personnel were cleared to know about the things that went bump in the night and none of them were onboard their truck. They'd already attracted enough attention when Andrew had put his money on "something demonic". Between one thing and another, it seemed like no time at all before they were being driven past the Post Office and then they were pulling up outside the cabin.

Suddenly, Jon wished he hadn't come. He hadn't been to the cabin in years, not since before he had been cloned. So technically he'd never been. But he still had all the old memories of the place. And last time he'd been this age, back when he was Jack O'Neill, he'd buried his Grandfather. Coming back as a teenager once again, after all these years, just felt wrong. Reluctantly, he followed his team as they filed out of the truck.

The drive was filled with stationary trucks, local military troops and SG-teams milling around. A base of operations was being erected and men were unloading a truck of equipment and stowing it nearby. The cabin looked exactly the same as it had the last time he was here. No... it hadn't been him. It was Jack O'Neill. Oz sniffed and Jon frowned.

"Got something?" he asked, hoping it wasn't the other Jack's scent. Oz nodded. "Nearby?"

Oz shook his head and Jon breathed a sigh of relief. He was also hoping they could keep their heads down and avoid being noticed until the trucks left.

"Captain O'Neil!"

No such luck. Jon snapped to attention as an irate General approached, Carter just behind. The blonde Colonel didn't look happy. His teammates straightened up, eyeing the General warily.

"Sir," Jon greeted his old 'Nam buddy as he approached.

"What the hell is your team doing here?" Hank demanded, clearly working himself up an outraged outburst.

"Actually sir, it was my idea," Carter said unexpectedly. She flushed ever so slightly as Jon and Hank stared incredulously at her. "They tracked and neutralised the creature on P2R-866 within an hour. I thought that we could probably use those skills here, sir," she left the "on Earth" unspoken.

"Is this true?" Hank asked Jon, his expression stormy.

"Yes, sir," Jon admitted. "We volunteered to help out when we heard what was going on."

"What made you think you could help?" Hank asked him frostily. "I distinctly remember placing SG-13 on sick leave."

"Sir, you know we weren't really sick," said Jon, dropping out of his formal pose. "We were going stir-crazy sitting around doing nothing. I hate to say it but there's only so many times you can watch The Simpsons in one day! As for how we can help, well, for one thing, sir, we've got Oz here," Jon clapped a hand on Oz's shoulder. "He's better than a bloodhound any day."

"Mmmm," Hank grumbled. "Since you're here now, you might as well make yourselves useful. Report for briefing in twenty minutes," he ordered Jon.

"Yes, sir!" Jon grinned as the General he'd once counted as a friend stalked off. He turned to the blonde Colonel still standing in front of him, intending to thank her, "Carter..."

She glared at him, "Don't!" she warned and hurried after Hank.

"Dude," Oz said reproachfully. "Not a dog."

"Sorry!" Jon hastily removed the hand still resting on Oz's shoulder. Almost as an afterthought, he reached up and brushed off a piece of lint that remained there. His eyes met Oz's. "Sorry," he apologised again.

**l**

Watching the encounter from across the clearing, Teal'c sighed. It appeared that SG-13 would be allowed to remain. He vowed to do his best to avoid Andrew Wells. The young Tau'ri's hero worship was most... irritating.

**l**

Cam was helping to put up one of the tents that would serve as a command centre while Vala watched and made helpful situations when he spotted SG-13 wondering around. What the hell were they doing here? Had it been a week since they were put on sick leave? Counting back the days as he watched them, he forgot to keep his eyes on what he was doing and brought the mallet down on his hand instead of the tent peg.

"Sonofa-" he bit back the rest of the curse, throwing down the mallet to clutch his injured hand and standing.

"Ouch," Vala winced sympathetically. "I'd put some ice on that if I were you."

Cam ignored her in favour of staring at SG-13. Pouting at the lack of attention, Vala hopped off of the stack of cases she was perched on and followed his line of sight to see what could be more important than her. She frowned.

"I thought SG-13 was on sick leave?" she said to herself more than to Cam. She shrugged and called out, "Jool!"

The red-haired slayer looked up and waved as she noticed them. Vala bounced over to her and the two began talking animatedly. Presumably Vala was finding out why they were here. Ignoring the way his hand throbbed, Cam set off in search of someone who could explain that to him.

**l**

Sam was setting up a computer in the field base when a shadow fell over her. Looking up to tell the offending person to move out of her light, her fierce expression faded when she realised who was standing over her.

"Hey," she said, accepting the hand Cam offered to help her up off the ground. She started to wire in the monitor as she asked, "What's up?"

"What're SG-13 doing here?" Cam didn't beat around the bush.

Sam sighed and stopped what she was doing to face him, meeting adversity head-on as she always did.

"I asked them to come," she lied again.

"Why?" Cam asked incredulously. "They're supposed to be on sick leave."

Sam could understand his astonishment at her actions. General Landry had already warned her that, despite her record, they could end up costing her a demotion. But she'd owed it to the clo-... to _Jon_ to give SG-13 the chance to prove themselves on P2R-866 and once she'd done that she couldn't very well object to them turning up here in Minnesota, even though she hadn't ordered them to. She hadn't ordered them _not_ to after all, and with the Gen- _Captain_, it was always best to be absolutely clear. Not that she could tell Cam any of that. Well, maybe some of it.

"They volunteered to help," she told him. "Captain O'Neil asked for a chance for them to prove themselves to the rest of the base. He said, and he was right, that they get a raw deal from the rest of the teams. There's a lot of resentment against them."

"A lot of guys waiting for a slot on a team got passed over when they were created," Cam reminded her. "It's not surprising. You really think it'll work?"

"Colonel Blasdale's report of their conduct on P2R-866 was practically glowing," Sam told him with a smug smile. She nodded at SG-13 as they stood happily conversing with SG-14 and Vala.

"Bet Landry's pissed," remarked Cam as they stood watching them.

"Hoo yeah," Sam told him dryly.

**l **

A helicopter clattered overhead as the three civilian members of SG-13 stood watching the briefing that was taking place in the large green military tent some distance away from them with some envy. As members of a team rather than leaders, they were excluded from the briefing. So were plenty of other people but unlike them, Andrew, Jool and Oz had no clue how to set up a temporary military encampment. They felt distinctly surplus to requirements.

"It's not fair," Andrew said plaintively. "SG-1 gets to go."

"Sam's briefing them about the interdimensional slug," Jool told him. "Teal'c and Vala are civilian consultants."

"So are we," Andrew pouted.

"They specialise in aliens," said Oz. "We're more supernatural."

"I still say it's demons," Andrew said sulkily as the meeting they were watching broke up.

"Let's go find out," Jool suggested as they moved forward to meet Jon.

**l**

SG-13 weren't doing as well as they had on the alien planet. Working as part of a large team of groups searching in a grid pattern meant that Oz was having difficulty following the trail of the animal, often picking up the scent several times a grid as the mutated critter criss-crossed the forest. Like everyone else, they were relying heavily on the hand-held scanners Carter had modified. Unlike everyone else, they were also relying on Jool, whose slayer 'spider-sense' had about the same range as the scanners. Oz had just picked up the scent again, although it was several hours old, when their radios crackled into life.

"Sam, what's your twenty?" Colonel Mitchell asked.

"I'm directly west of you," replied Colonel Carter.

"We're north of her," Jon reminded his team.

"We've got a bogey just north-east of your position," Colonel Mitchell told Colonel Carter. "Can you zero in on it?"

As the person holding the scanner, Andrew suddenly found himself the focus of his teammates attention. Beginning to wish he hadn't insisted on being entrusted with the device, he frowned as he struggled to interpret the readings.

"Got it," Colonel Cater reported over the radio. "Moving on target."

Jon hit the transmit button on his radio, "We see it too," he lied, trusting the quivering Doc's slayer senses rather than Andrew's ability, or lack thereof, to read the scanner. "Heading toward it now from north of Colonel Carter's position."

"Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c's voice floated from their radios as they began to move east, following the Doc's lead. "We have also detected the creature."

"Teal'c, where are you?" asked Mitchell.

"Just south of your position," Teal'c informed him.

SG-13 moved quickly and quietly through the woods, Jool leading the way with Oz just behind her. Despite not using the torches they had been issued with, the two supernatural members of SG-13 were quieter than either Andrew or Jon, who were using their flashlights. They were careful not to shine those torches near either Oz or Jool though, so that they didn't spoil their night vision. It wasn't long before they were converging with the other teams in the area in a small clearing. Finding several torches pointed their way and suffering from what was for them night blindness, Jool and Oz immediately turned their own torches on.

"Marines, secure the perimeter," Colonel Reynolds snapped as soon as he saw how crowded the clearing had become, reinforcing his order with a hand signal. Immediately, almost half of the forces assembled there detached themselves and vanished into the undergrowth.

"Alright, where the hell is it?" Colonel Mitchell asked Colonel Carter, sounding frustrated.

"We should be right on top of it," said Colonel Carter, staring at her scanner with a puzzled frown.

"Look," said Vala, turning around to face the group. "No creature, no matter how vicious, is stupid enough to attack a group of this size, so trust me, we've probably scared it off."

"Uhh..." said Andrew, staring behind her with horror as the undergrowth rustled and an unnaturally large animal stalked towards the oblivious alien consultant.

"Vala!" Colonel Mitchell hissed urgently.

"What?" she asked.

"Down!" Mitchell told her as several people pointed their weapons in her general direction.

Vala hesitated and the creature growled. She dropped to the ground and those nearest to the creature opened fire. Crying out in pain, the animal flung itself into the bushes.

Unnerved, Vala got back up on her feet. "Of course, I have been known to be wrong on occasion," she admitted.

"Holy Hannah, did you see that thing?" Carter exclaimed as they began to reload.

"Definitely not demonic," a shaken Andrew declared.

"You can pay me when we get back to the mountain," Jon told him generously, jamming his magazine home.

"You think we frightened it off now?" Colonel Reynolds asked, pointing his P-90 at some innocent bushes.

"No, I think we pissed it off," said Mitchell as the undergrowth rustled loudly and a throaty growl floated to them on the air.

"It's circling us," Carter warned them, watching the creature's progress on the scanner she held.

"Backs together!" General Landry ordered and they quickly formed a defensive circle, bristling with weapons.

Colonel Reynolds alerted his marines over his radio, "We have a contact in the area."

Growls and snorts seemed to come from all around as they waited for it, weapons at the ready. Cam frowned, lowering his gun slightly to get a better look at the bushes in front of him. Had they just moved?

The creature burst forth from the bushes, lumbering towards him. It gave a bellowed challenging screech and Cam quickly aimed his P-90 at the mutated animal, firing as soon as he had it in his sights. Alerted by the noise, the others on Cam's side of the circle also opened fire, Teal'c striding forward to get a better aim at the target.

The creature roared defiantly at them. Whimpering in pain, it tried to back away, shuddered and fell to the ground. They ceased fire.

"Yeah!" said Colonel Mitchell, moving towards the dead animal. "Now that's what I call relaxing."

A long line of bullets shot past him and the creature's body shuddered as they impacted into its skull. Cam hurriedly hopped out of the line of fire, turning around to catch Vala with her finger on the trigger.

"What the hell are you doing?" he exclaimed.

Vala lowered her weapon. "Rule number two," she said sagely. "Never approach a creature assuming that it's dead."

"Allow me to explain to you a few of **my** rules," Mitchell said fiercely.

Next to Jon, General Landry spoke into his radio, "All units this is General Landry. The target has been neutralised. Repeat, the target has been neutralised."

"You know what's strange?" Vala said to Mitchell, trying to change the subject. "I have never known a lone creature to behave so aggressively toward a large group."

"She's not wrong," said Oz and they all turned to look at him. "That's not what I was tracking."

"You mean there's more than one of these things?" General Landry asked him.

Cams eyes widened in horror as he spotted a second creature behind the General, "Sir, get down!"

"Very funny, Mitchell," Landry snapped as, next to him, Jon turned around to see what Mitchell was looking at. "Now is not-"

He was cut off when Jon tackled him to the ground. Above them, everyone opened fire. The creature growled and bushes crashed and then the firing stopped. Jon raised his head just enough to peek at the creature lying dead on the ground and then jumped to his feet, offering Hank a hand up.

"Well that explains that," Vala said smugly. "Odd behaviour for one creature, but not for two."

"Feel better?" Mitchell asked her.

"Uh huh!"

**l**

Dawn was breaking as the troubled Slayer stood watching the exhausted witch sleep. She had had to force Willow to stop scrying for her sister when her red-haired friend had drained her vast magical reserves. Willow had tried to insist that she was fine, but the blood pouring from her nose and the way that she had swayed as she argued with her had told a different tale. They'd barely gotten the witch into bed before she passed out. Logically, Buffy knew that she should get some sleep too; she might be the Slayer, but even she had trouble going more than forty-eight hours without rest. She'd insisted that Xander go to bed, and won that argument too. But Willow was her best chance at finding her sister and so she stayed, keeping watch over her unconscious friend.

Despite her best efforts, Willow had been unable to locate Dawn anywhere on Earth. It was possible that she was being magically shielded, but there weren't many shields that Willow couldn't break through and even if Dawn was being shielded, they should have been able to narrow it down to at least a country with the scrying spells they were using. They'd even begun searching the galaxy for her, thanks to Xander remembering that one of the junior slayers in the castle, Louise, was an amateur astronomer. They'd got maybe halfway through the book of star maps she'd eagerly lent them when Willow's nosebleed began.

Soft, familiar footsteps approached and Buffy didn't bother to turn around as Giles entered Willow's room. She knew he would understand and he did, standing behind her and placing his hand on her shoulder in a wordless gesture of support. The comfort he offered almost brought her iron curtain of control crashing down but she forced herself to think about getting her sister back rather than sobbing on Giles' shoulder.

"Faith knew this would happen," she said softly, her gaze still firmly fixed on Willow. "She tried to warn me in her letter but it was too late."

This was the first that Giles had heard of it. They had been so focussed on searching for Dawn that Faith's letter had completely slipped his mind. Now he regretted it, wondering just what she had written.

"May I see it?" he gently asked the slayer he thought of as a daughter.

"Xander's got it," Buffy dismissed the letter with a wave of her hand. She stared at the sleeping Willow for several more moments before she turned her head, her bleak eyes meeting his. "We need to know what she saw in her dream," she told him with the barest trace of her usual fiery determination; the first he'd seen since his arrival. "When're Andrew and Oz going to bring her home?"

"It may not be that simple," admitted Giles, taking off his glasses.

"Oh God," said Buffy, her voice hollow with dread as she watched him polish them.

"Have you read Doctor Jackson's translation of the prophecy?" Giles asked her. He could see by the look on her face that she hadn't and sighed. "Perhaps this is a conversation best held over hot chocolate?" he suggested.

**l**

Hank watched his teams trickle back onto Jack O'Neill's property, knowing that he would be asking them to start their search all over again as soon as they were all assembled. He couldn't take the risk that there were more than two of those creatures. Lost in thought, he failed to notice one of the airmen co-ordinating the search from the base approaching him.

"Sir?" said the airman, holding the phone he carried out to the General.

"Mmm?" said Hank, looking at him. "Oh," he took the phone. "Landry here."

"Sir?" a familiar voice said.

"Walter?" Hank frowned. Was Walter scheduled to work tonight?

"I thought you should know that Mr Woolsey is on his way to interrogate the prisoner, sir," Walter told him. "Also, Doctor Wilson left the base at about the same time as Colonel Carter and she hasn't returned yet."

"I see," Hank said wryly. He'd always suspected that Walter knew more about what went on at the SGC than he let on and as far as he was concerned, he'd just been given proof that his suspicions were well-founded. "Thank you, Walter."

"Will you be back by Monday, sir?" Walter asked. "Or should I postpone SG-1's briefing with Martin Lloyd and their, uh, _reconnaissance_ mission?"

"No, I don't know when we'd be able to get everything set up again," said Hank, thinking about the elaborate arrangements he'd made on General O'Neill's orders. "We should be back sometime tomorrow. Or should I say, today!"

"Yes, sir," said Walter.

"I'm sure I'll see you then, Walter," Hank told him, hanging up. Looking around, he spotted the airman still hovering. "Tell SG-13 I need to see them," he told the man, handing him the phone.

"Yes, sir," the airman replied, saluting before he departed.

Knowledge of SG-13 was restricted to a bare handful of people outside the SGC in an attempt to keep their supernatural origins secure. Richard Woolsey wasn't one of those people. It would be better for everyone if they weren't here when he arrived.

It was a pity, because they had performed far better than he could have hoped. He'd been relying on them to help speed up the second search. But the SGC had managed before SG-13 and no doubt they'd manage after they were gone. Now all he had to do was convince SG-13 that they'd be better off returning to the mountain with the mission they had volunteered for half-finished.

**l**

"I so don't do prophecies, Giles," Buffy interrupted wearily, not more than two lines into the prophecy Giles was reciting from memory in his gloomy 'prophecy-voice'. She sipped her hot chocolate from the mug she held in both hands, "Gimme the cliff notes."

"Yes, well," Giles cleared his throat. "There are only a few lines referring to Faith, but the last two clearly state that 'Unless the Dark' – Doctor Jackson translates the word as 'killer' but Andrew believes that it means 'slayer' – 'leads her Amazons home, the Earth herself is doomed to death, And the Ancient fates are sealed'."

"Gotta love a good ending," Buffy said wryly. "So what, we're screwed unless Faith finds her own way back?"

"That just about sums it up," Giles admitted with cheerful fatalism.

"And there's nothing we can do?" checked Buffy.

"It would appear so," Giles sighed and drank some of his own hot chocolate.

"That sucks," it was Buffy's turn to sigh. The sigh turned into a yawn and Giles' eyes narrowed.

"Bed," he said firmly.

"But, Giles..." whined Buffy.

"Bed," Giles insisted. "It won't help Dawn if you're exhausted when we find her."

That convinced the Slayer as nothing else would. Taking her mug of hot chocolate with her, she stood and shuffled out of the room. Moments later, her head popped round the door.

"Hey, Giles," she said. "What do we do about SG-13?"

"That," Giles raised his mug in a toast to her, "Is a very good question. Fortunately it's not one we need answer tonight. Good night, Buffy."

"Night, Giles," she sighed as she headed towards her bed.

**l**

Piling off the truck that had driven them back to the mountain, Jool stretched as her team joined her on the tarmac. Looking around, she could tell that there were still several hours left to the night. Having slept on the way back, she felt full of energy and knew that there was no point to bed now. She'd be better if she could take over someone's shift in the infirmary and work, but she knew that there was no way Caroline would allow it. Still, as a slayer, there were other options open to her.

"Can one of you drop me off at the nearest cemetery?" she asked the men on her team. "I want to get a quick patrol in before dawn."

Jon glanced quickly at Andrew and Oz. Neither of them looked particularly tired; they'd all gotten some sleep on the drive back. He really wasn't comfortable with the idea of the Doc patrolling on her own. They were a team and they watched each others backs.

"Good idea," he said. "We'll join you. I know a demon bar we can check out."

**l**

Daniel rushed through Heathrow airport, his backpack slung over one shoulder. He'd overslept, and had only been woken by a slayer banging on his door, telling him that he was going to miss his flight. Fortunately, he'd already packed so he'd only needed to throw some clothes on and dash out to his waiting cab. He hadn't even had time for a cup of coffee, or to leave his thanks for Lord Giles. He'd only said goodbye to Tiffany, Belinda and Lady Puddlemere because they'd waved him off.

Saying that it was too late for him to make it to the gate, the woman on the check-in desk hadn't wanted to give him a seat on his flight until he'd flashed his Air Force ID at her. They were holding the flight for him now. He just hoped he made his connection. A later flight wouldn't get him into Colorado Springs before dark and Daniel knew that he would need at least twelve hours to adjust to the time difference before he reported for to the mountain tomorrow morning.

**l**

As dawn broke over Colorado Springs, SG-13 were taking advantage of a deserted all-night diner to eat breakfast. Silence reigned over their table by the steamy window as they devoured stacks of pancakes. Behind the counter, a grizzled man was cleaning the surfaces, the only attention he paid them devoted to making sure their coffee cups stayed full.

"So..." Jool said eventually, pushing her empty plate away and resting one hand on her stuffed stomach. "Breakfast at mine tomorrow?"

"Only if Andrew cooks," said Jon, sipping his hot coffee.

"But that means I'd have to go in before the rest of you," Andrew pouted.

"I'll give you a ride," offered Oz. Doctor Lam wanted him to report to the infirmary early anyway.

"Go on, Andrew," said Jool, seeing Andrew wavering. "You know you want to."

"Alright," Andrew capitulated easily. "What are we doing anyway?"

"On Monday?" Jon asked. Andrew nodded. "Reconnaissance mission to P2C-106. The General said he'd brief us in the morning."

"Want me to do some research?" Jool asked him.

"Yeah, sure," Jon told her. Why not? "You betcha."

Seeing that they were all done, he tossed a large tip down onto the table and stood, picking up his leather jacket. The others followed his example and they all trooped out onto the street. Looking at his team in the pale dawn light, Jon realised that while Andrew and Oz were at least as tired as he was, the Doc was still full of energy.

"So what now?" Andrew asked.

"Bed," said Oz at the same time as the Doc spoke.

"Back to the mountain," she said, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. "For me anyway."

"I'll drop you back," Jon volunteered.

"Oh, no," she said. "You don't have to. I'll get a taxi."

"It's no trouble," Jon told her, and he was surprised to find that it really wasn't. "C'mon."


	19. Two Hundred And Four, or, The Big Reveal

**A/N:**

I know I said that the updates would slow but I'm incredibly bored and this is actually a very short chapter... for me. Partly because I couldn't find a good enough reason for SG-13 to take part in the 'spinning session' and partly because my attention span is shot to pieces so I can really only do short scenes at the moment. Swine flu is a bitca.... but Tamiflu is ten times worse!

The Macarena is owned by Los del Rio, not me. Also, I'm not fluent in Spanish so I apologise in advance for any crimes against that language.

For Apollo. And Cutiepie. And Mythbusters!

**Two Hundred and Four, or, The Big Reveal**

Faith sipped her coffee as she sat hunched over the console, wishing that she had enough cigarettes to smoke one a day. There was nothing quite like a smoke with the first cup of coffee of the day. But with no clue when she might get back to Earth to buy some more, she was rationing them tightly. Maybe she should start doing the same with the coffee and chocolate, she thought to herself. They were rapidly running out of both. Footsteps approached her and Faith turned around as Kay entered the room. The older slayer was clutching her own cup of coffee and her short hair was badly in need of a cut.

"Good morning," Kay greeted her with a smile, slipping into the other available seat and checking the displays on the console in front of her.

"Hey," Faith returned the greeting, turning back to her own console. She frowned at the log entry she was struggling to translate for several long moments. "Is this a cargo inventory?" she asked eventually.

"Yes," Kay beamed at her, delighted with her progress. She couldn't believe that Faith had come so far in the few days they had been onboard the tel'tak.

**l**

She'd spent several hours researching P2C-106 and hadn't been able to find any reason why SG-13 might be going there, only more questions. Now, Jool stood just inside the busy control room, her gaze fixed on the one person who might be able to tell her what was going on as he sat in front of the Stargate, going about his normal business. Tentatively, Jool approached him. She hadn't really had much to do with him but he had seemed like a nice guy when he had given them their 'Gate training and she knew that Oz got on well with him.

"Um, excuse me," she said hovering near him. "Sergeant Harriman?"

He looked up at her, "Doctor Wilson. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Um..." Jool glanced around the crowded room. Was it just her imagination or were there more people here than usual? She sat down on a free chair next to Sergeant Harriman, "It's about P2C-106."

Walter glanced around the hectic control room and then up at the briefing room above them. Richard Woolsey was debriefing SG-3 up there and he was running the weekly 'Gate diagnostic down here before he inserted the program he'd been working on all week into the system. It was vital that no-one in around him got a whiff of what was going on underneath their noses. The last thing he needed was security leaks. Or Doctor Wilson this close to Mr Woolsey.

"How did you hear about P2C-106?" he asked her suspiciously, taking care to keep his voice low.

"General Landry told us that we're scheduled for a mission there tomorrow," Doctor Wilson told him with a puzzled frown. "But I thought I'd do some research on it before he briefed us tomorrow morning and-"

"Meet me in your office," Walter interrupted to tell her with a sense of relief. If the General had told SG-13 that they were going to P2C-106 then the Doctor had a perfectly legitimate reason for asking about it and he needn't worry about telling her what he knew. As long as they were somewhere where they wouldn't be overheard. Walter turned back to the monitor in front of him, "Five minutes."

"Oh," she said, clearly taken aback. "Um.... okay," she stood and stared down at him. "Right," she seemed to remember that she was supposed to leave. "See you in five minutes then."

Walter ignored her as she lingered beside him, getting on with his job, and eventually she left the room. As soon as she had, one of the newer technicians sidled up to him.

"What was that about?" the man asked and Walter could sense several pairs of eyes resting on him as they waited for him to reply.

"What? Doctor Wilson? She wanted to know when Vala Mal Doran would be back," Walter lied with a guilt-free conscience and a shrug. "Hey, could you take over while I take a quick break?"

"Sure," the technician leapt at the opportunity to show off his abilities as Walter knew he would. The Master Sergeant made a mental note to double-check the technician's work when he returned as he stood up.

"Thanks," he said and left the room to go tell Doctor Wilson about the surprise party General O'Neill had arranged for his old teammates.

**l**

Walking wearily into Colorado Springs Airport's arrivals lounge, carrying his small suitcase, Daniel almost missed the unusual group of people waiting for him. It was only Vala's frantic waving as his gaze slid over them that attracted his attention and made him stop to check that he wasn't hallucinating.

Nope. General Landry, Teal'c and Vala, all dressed in muddy BDU's, were waiting for him. Vala grinned and beckoned him over. Frowning, Daniel pushed his glasses further up his nose. What had they been doing with their weekend off? He headed towards them to find out.

"Hi!" Vala chirped as he reached them. "Have a good trip?" reaching out, she took his suitcase out of his hand and handed it to Teal'c.

Daniel frowned at her, "Hey," he said to all of them. He turned to General Landry, "What's going on?"

"Not much," said Landry. "_Now_." He shrugged, "We were on our way back from the cabin when Vala remembered that your flight got in about the same time we did. Figured you might need a ride."

"Thanks," Daniel said unenthusiastically, not sure he wouldn't have preferred to get a cab.

"Don't mention it," General Landry told him, leading the way through the airport.

"Did, uh, did you guys have a good weekend?" Daniel asked them, wondering why they were in BDU's.

"You could say that," General Landry said wryly.

"I did not," Teal'c informed him emphatically.

"Don't even get me started," Vala told him, rolling her eyes.

"I never did see a fulvous whistling duck," Landry mused mournfully.

**l**

Bone weary, Willow focussed on Buffy with an effort. Her best friend looked on the verge of going catatonic again. She had clearly given up hope and Willow didn't blame her. Her best scrying spells had turned up zip. Nada. There was no trace of Dawnie anywhere in the universe. But all was not lost. Willow still had one ace up her sleeve. Gathering the last of her reserves, the redhaired witch from the Hellmouth began to chant.

"Aradia, Goddess of the lost. The path is murky, the woods are dense, darkness pervades. I beseech thee, bring the light," Willow held her breath as a small ball of green light appeared in the air before her, hoping that the spell didn't go kablooey the way it had the one and only other time she'd tried it. "Find Dawn," she told it.

The light seemed to hover uncertainly in the air. It floated first in this direction and then that. Finally, it winked out of existence. Willow staggered as she felt her connection to it sever and Xander caught her. She smiled gratefully up at him.

"Oh, God!" Buffy choked as Giles took his glasses off to polish them. "She's dead."

"No!" Willow hastened to reassure her, struggling to stand unsupported. "No. If she was dead then the energy of the spell should have just dissolved. Buffy, it went somewhere else!"

"Where?" Buffy asked eagerly, unshed tear moistening her eyelashes.

"I think," Willow said carefully. "I _think_, it went to a different reality."

"A what?" Buffy frowned, looking confused.

**l**

In an alternate reality, one where dinosaurs hadn't been wiped out and had in fact survived to enslave the human race, Dawn agitatedly swiped at the irritating spark of green light hovering above her head.

"Go _away_!" she hissed.

She really didn't want to attract the attention of the pterodactyl overseer. Especially since she'd be gone soon. She'd started to glow in the dark again, something she'd noticed a couple of nights before the familiar walls of the castle had disappeared in front of her eyes, replaced by a dinosaur facility. She still didn't know what the facility was supposed to be for, but her arrival had caused quite a stir, especially since her genetic pattern wasn't registered on the dinosaur's computers. They'd been quite excited about capturing a 'wild' human until they'd realised that she wouldn't (couldn't really) tell them where she'd come from. Then they'd put her to work on one of their farms and she could still remember her relief on discovering that it really was a farm and not some sort of human-pie factory. But she really wished she'd told Buffy about the glow-in-the-dark thing when she had the chance, instead of using it as a nightlight.

**l**

Sipping her morning coffee as she stood on the bridge of the tel'tak, Faith smiled as she watched the countdown until their arrival tick down under twenty-four hours. For once, she didn't crave a cigarette to go with her cup of coffee. The knowledge that at this time tomorrow, whatever time it was, they'd be arriving at Kelowna was enough for her.

**l**

Frowning, Jon poked the flabby bacon on offer at the SGC mess with his fork. Something was very definitely wrong with this picture. Where were the fresh Danish pastries, crisp bacon and golden, fluffy pancakes he'd been fantasising about on the drive into work?

"I thought you were giving Andrew a ride?" he said to the short man standing beside him in the queue.

"I did," said Oz, frowning slightly.

"Excuse me," the Doc said as the airman behind the counter approached them. "Is Andrew here?"

"In the kitchen," the airman told her, gesturing to the door with a thumb.

Jon looked at the Doc, wondering if she was thinking the same thing as he was. Her yellow eyes gleamed curiously as she returned his gaze. As one, the three members of SG-13 left their trays on the counter and hurried to the kitchen door, eagerly walking into the chaos beyond.

Red-faced chefs barked orders at frantic underlings, scurrying here and there at their bidding as the SGC kitchens catered to those just about to go on duty. In half an hour, they'd be providing breakfast to the personnel coming off-duty. A team of dishwashers were slaving in a corner. In the middle of all the frenzied activity stood Andrew, calming piping swirls of icing onto an impressive three layered cake. Dodging a sweating chef with a large knife, Jon led the others over to him. He waited until Andrew was just about to add another swirl before he spoke.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Andrew jumped and icing spurted in an inelegant heap onto the cake, "Jon! Jool, Oz... What're you guys doing here? It's not time for the briefing already, is it?" Andrew checked his watch and relaxed when he realised that he still had plenty of time. Jool took advantage of his relaxation to scoop the blob of icing off the cake with her finger. "Hey!" Andrew protested.

"I'm helping," Jool insisted, licking the icing off her finger. "Mmm, yummy."

Andrew elbowed her away from the cake and started icing it again. Jon forced his mind back to the issue at hand and away from his teenaged hormones.

"So... whatcha doing?" he asked again.

"Making a cake for the party," Andrew told him, concentrating on his cake.

"What party?" Jon was confused.

"Oh," the Doc spoke up, looking guilty. "Um... About P2C-106..."

**l**

Jon waited impatiently for Hank to finish repeating the information that the Doc had already given them. P2C-106 was just a convenient cover... General Jack O'Neill had arranged a surprise party off-world for SG-1 and Hank wanted them there... blah, blah, blah. Finally, Hank finished and sat there, a beaming smile on his face as he looked at them.

"I don't think it's a good idea, sir," Jon said before any of his team could say anything.

"What?" said Andrew, looking devastated.

"Why not?" Hank wanted to know, all trace of his smile gone.

"SG-13 was created to find Faith," Jon said carefully, not wanting to offend Hank more than he had to. "No offence, sir, but a party hardly qualifies."

"Dude?" said Oz, frowning at him.

"Well it doesn't!" Jon said defensively.

"Why can't we go to the party?" whined Andrew.

"Because I said so!" Jon snapped.

"I thought you wanted us to integrate with the other teams?" the Doc asked him.

"I do!" said Jon.

"I would have thought this was an excellent way to do that," commented the Doc.

Jon stared at her, stumped for an answer. He couldn't tell them his real reason for not wanting to go; that he didn't think it was a good idea for him to spend time in the same room as the real Jack O'Neill, especially not in front of witnesses. Not unless he wanted to tell them the truth about who he was. Why couldn't their sick leave have lasted one more day?

"I don't think General O'Neill would agree," he said finally.

"I disagree," Hank told him. "The General specifically requested that all available teams attend. Is your team fit for duty, Captain?"

"Yeah, sure," Jon admitted reluctantly.

"Then SG-13's attendance is mandatory," Hank decreed. "Besides," he said, relenting slightly. "All the other teams have already left and I understand that you're taking the cake."

**l**

"Careful!"

Waiting for the elevator to arrive and take him to level twenty-seven, Cam turned around, looking for the source of the exclamation. SG-13 were walking towards him, dressed in BDU's and carrying heavy packs; Captain O'Neil and Julie Wilson were gingerly carrying a large packing case between them. Cam frowned. He wasn't aware of any new information that might take the team off-world.

"Spell ingredients," O'Neil explained glibly as they joined him by the elevators.

"Right..." said Cam, not sure he was convinced. The elevator arrived and SG-13 piled onboard.

"Careful!" Wells cried again as the case tilted. "It's fragile!"

"I _am_ being careful," O'Neil snapped back at the fussy older man as Cam followed them into the elevator.

"You're not!" Wells told him. Cam caught sight of the slayer rolling her eyes at the Captain. "You're being all like... like a bull in a china shop!"

"I'll have you know that bulls in china shops are very nimble," O'Neil told Wells airily. "Almost dainty."

"Huh," Osbourne said stoically.

"How do you know that?" Doctor Wilson asked him curiously.

"Saw it on Mythbusters," O'Neil explained matter-of-factly.

The doors slid open on level twenty-seven and Cam gratefully escaped. No matter what he found on the other end of his two-hundredth trip through the Stargate, he thought as he headed toward the briefing room, it couldn't be any stranger than SG-13.

**l**

Willow waited patiently for someone to fetch her lover to the phone. Normally she could have just teleported straight to Kennedy, but she wanted to conserve her energy for the trans-dimensional spell she would be performing later. She didn't know how much energy it would take and she wanted to be certain that she'd have some left to spare. There were the usual scrapes and knocks as the phone was picked up and Willow devoted all of her attention to the telephone in her hand.

"Kennedy?" she asked anxiously.

"Willow!" Kennedy sounded surprised and delighted to hear from her and Willow relaxed. "When are you coming back?"

"Um..." said Willow, not sure how to tell her lover that she wasn't coming back. Net yet, anyhow.

"You said you were only going to be a couple of days," Kennedy's voice sounded reproachful.

"I know, baby," Willow tried to soothe her.

"So you should have been back yesterday," Kennedy pointed out. She paused slightly before continuing, "Willow... honey. I know you wanna hang with your friends, but I miss you."

"I miss you too," Willow told her honestly.

"So you'll be back later?" Kennedy didn't wait for a reply, answering her own assumption. "Great!"

"Um... actually..." said Willow.

"You're not coming back?" now Kennedy sounded hurt.

"No!" Willow said quickly, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. "It's just..."

"So you're coming back tomorrow?" Kennedy checked.

"No," Willow admitted.

"Which is it, Willow?" demanded Kennedy. "Because you can't have it both ways."

"It's just..."

"What?"

The floodgates opened, "We can't find Dawnie anywhere not even in astronomy books and we think she might be in another dimension so Buffy and I are gonna go see if we can find her and bring her back and I will be back baby it's just I don't know how long this'll take and I wanted to call you and tell you because I miss you and I love you and, and I didn't want you to worry."

Finally running out of steam, Willow listened anxiously to the silence on the other end of the line.

"So you're not coming back," Kennedy eventually said.

"No, Kennedy, baby, I am," Willow insisted. "I just-"

"What am I supposed to do while you're in another dimension with _Buffy_?" Kennedy wanted to know.

"Well..." said Willow. "You could-"

"Can't someone else go?" Kennedy asked. "Why does it always have to be you?"

"Because I'm our magical big guns," Willow told her proudly. "It takes a lot of power to punch through dimensions and-"

"It's dangerous?" Kennedy sounded alarmed.

"Kinda..." Willow reluctantly admitted.

"Willow I don't understand why you're risking yourself like this," said Kennedy. "Why don't you come back home for a couple of days and we'll talk about it? I miss you. Come back to me... my bed's cold without you."

"Baby, I can't..." Willow sighed, torn between her lover and her best friend. "Dawn needs me."

"You mean your precious Buffy needs you!" raged Kennedy. "Well, fine! Just don't come crawling back to me when she turns you down! I won't be here."

"Kennedy?" Willow said as the other phone slammed down.

Shaken, she looked at her handset she held for several long minutes before she hung up. Well that hadn't gone well.

"You okay?"

Unaware that she was being observed, Willow gasped and spun around to face Xander, lounging in the doorway at the other end of the room. He smiled sympathetically at her.

"Yeah," Willow sighed, setting the phone down on the side. "I'm fine."

"Cool," said Xander, straightening. "You want some of my secret stash of ice cream?"

Ask a stupid question.... watch a petite witch devour a half-gallon tub of Ben & Jerry's.

**l**

Sam sighed as she stared at the computer screen in frustration. She'd isolated the issue but no matter what she did, she couldn't get the phase couplers to feed power to the 'Gate. According to Siler, it wasn't a hardware issue, so that only left the software. But no matter how much code she scanned, or how many patches she wrote, the couplers refused to work.

"Okay," she said to Walter, busy working on the problem at the station next to her. "Try a full system reset and reinstall the last saved version of the Stargate program. I'll go tell General Landry what we're doing."

"Yes, ma'am," replied Walter.

Reluctantly, Sam ascended to the briefing room, not eager to rejoin the group there. They didn't look any more enthusiastic to be there than she did. Even Martin looked like he wished he was somewhere else as he stood talking to General Landry.

"Any idea when we'll be able to go?" whined Daniel from his position in front of the window, next to Vala.

"Sorry," said Sam, suddenly reminded of the one and only time she'd taken her brother's kids on a car trip as she walked up to General Landry. Daniel had sounded just like them. "We're trying a full rest of the system," she told the General. He looked back at her, clearly resigned to the problem and Sam smiled slightly at Martin.

"Hey!" Vala called softly and Sam moved towards her with a small sigh of relief as Martin pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialling as General Landry walked away from him. "If you want this to be more accurate, why don'y you just give him your mission files?" Vala asked quietly when Sam reached them.

"They're classified," Sam told her.

"So?" asked Vala. "Didn't you say that no-one on your planet would believe this was real anyway?"

"But even still," said Sam. "Do you know how many mission files there are?

"One thousand, two hundred and sixty-three," Cam interrupted from his seat on the table behind them and Sam exchanged a glance with Daniel. "Hopefully sixty-four by the end of the day."

"Actually, it's sixty-four already," Daniel told him as Sam, Vala and he turn to face Mitchell.

"No, it's sixty-three," insisted Cam. "I'm pretty sure I've read all the files recently."

"Actually," Sam went along with it as Daniel was forced to hide a smile. She was pretty sure where he was going with this and gave Cam just enough truth to hook him. "You haven't read three-zero-one-eight-five."

"Three-zero-one-eight-five?" Cam repeated, and it was clear he'd never heard of it. "What's that?"

Sam smiled slightly at him as Daniel glanced at her. 30185 was the mission file about General O'Neill's clone. It was impossible for Cam to have seen it, and they certainly couldn't tell him what was in it. But maybe they could use it to mess with Cam's head. It beat sitting around until Martin got off the phone.

"We can't tell you," said Daniel.

"What do you mean, you can't tell me?" asked Cam, standing. "I have the highest security clearance known to mankind. What is three-zero-one-eight-five?"

"We were sworn to secrecy," Sam told him uncomfortably, wishing they hadn't started this. Cam was looking far too thoughtful.

"Well, why even mention it if you're not going to tell me what it is?" Cam wanted to know.

Sam grimaced, "Sorry."

"Can you tell me?" Vala asked Daniel curiously.

"Oh, yeah," said Daniel at once, turning to her. "We can tell you." As Vala gasped in excitement, Daniel looked at Sam, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Well, it has to do with the time that the gate sent us back to nineteen sixty-nine," Sam lied glibly.

"Well, that can't have anything to do with me," said Cam. "I wasn't born until a year later."

"Actually, it was _nine months_ before he was born," Daniel told Vala.

"What?" asked Cam.

"You have to remember, it was the sixties," Sam said to him. She grimaced, biting her lip as though she was afraid she'd said too much.

"Come on," Daniel said, looking at Mitchell with a perfectly straight face. Vala's mouth fell open in shock and Sam bit her tongue to keep from giggling. "You have to have known that Jack's always taken an interest in your life."

"Jack?" Cam asked them disbelievingly. "O'Neill?"

"Indeed," Teal'c told him. Cam looked disturbed. Very disturbed.

"Remember when you were chosen for the F-302 program, even when you didn't think you should get in?" Sam asked him, her eyes dancing with repressed mirth. "How about when you were chosen for SG-1?"

"Wait," Vala said, the strangeness of it all making her laugh slightly. "Are you saying that Jack O'Neill is..."

"My daddy?" Cam finished for her.

"All starting to make sense now, isn't it?" said Daniel.

"Hmmm," Teal'c smiled slightly.

Cam stared at them all like they'd just told him that the sky was actually red and then smiled slightly as he began to see what was going on.

"Oh, I get it," he said. "I'm being punk'd, aren't I?"

"We honestly can't tell you about three-zero-one-eight-five," Sam told him soberly.

Cam continued to watch them all carefully, and Sam wondered if he was going to push it any further. She had a horrible feeling that they really had said too much. Cam wasn't stupid, not by a long shot, and it was entirely possible that he might connect 30185 with Captain Jonathon O'Neil unless they could distract him. She was trying to think of something to do just that when Martin ended his phone conversation.

"I can't believe it!" he raged, turning to them. "The whole cast heard Marlowe is holding out for more money, and now they're all joining in. Where do they think it all comes from?" he sighed. "How am I supposed to do a movie without any actors?"

Perfect.

**l**

"Hey, Giles, you got a minute?" the request came from Buffy, her head sticking around the little-used library door. Giles marked his place in papers he was reading and set them aside.

"Of course," he said and frowned. "Shouldn't you be preparing for the spell?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Buffy, entering the library. "Willow's setting it up now. I wanted to talk to you about SG-13 before we left."

"Ah, yes," said Giles. "I was just reading their latest reports. Have you had a chance to see them yet?" Buffy shook her head. "It's quite entertaining reading," Giles told her. "Especially Captain O'Neil's reports. It seems that, despite their lack of progress as regards Faith and, reading in-between the lines of the previous reports, in the face of some initial hostility on the part of the rest of the base..."

"Cliff notes, Giles," Buffy interrupted impatiently.

"Yes, well," Giles cleared his throat. "It appears that they've created a niche for themselves."

"Is that good?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Providing that they don't mess things up by bringing Faith back before she'd supposed to arrive, thus dooming the entire earth," Giles qualified. "Yes."

"That would be of the bad," agreed Buffy. "Can't we change their orders to locate and provide assistance to Faith or something? Drop the whole 'bring her back' idea?"

"That could work," said Giles. "I was thinking of something more along the lines of pulling them out."

"But they've got the whole niche thing working for them," Buffy pointed out. "Hey, if they're getting along so well, can't we add something about them helping the SGC out when they need to?"

"We could..." Giles said noncommittally.

"Great!" Buffy smiled. "Let's do that then."

"Are you certain that you shouldn't be meditating or something before the spell?" Giles asked, concerned.

"Nah," said Buffy, heading towards the door. "I just gotta pick up the scythe and I'm good to go."

**l**

"No!" Chaia emphasised her point by kicking the Mean Man on the shin. "I won't!"

"You must!" the Mean Man insisted, struggling to hold onto her as she twisted and squirmed.

"No!"

"Yes!"

Chaia screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a good scream, loud and shrill. Chaia was proud of it, especially as the Mean Man let go of her to clap his hands over his ears. She scuttled behind the safety of her bed.

"Come back here," the Mean Man ordered.

"No!" refused Chaia. She was tempted to poke her tongue out at him but decided against it. She didn't want to make him use his staff.

He looked mad enough to do it anyway. Luckily the doors slid open and Tomin walked in. Chaia beamed at him but stayed where she was, well out of the Mean Man's reach.

"What's going on?" Tomin asked, taking in the situation, and Chaia's tear-streaked cheeks, with a glance.

"_You_ make her bathe!" stormed Praemas, stalking from the room.

"Is that what all of the fuss is about?" asked Tomin. Chaia nodded, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand as she sniffed. "How about a story while you wash?"

"Yeah!" Chaia clapped her hands excitedly and ran into the small washroom attached to her room.

Tomin followed her at a more sedate pace. Chaia had taken to him almost from the first moment they had met. Seeing that, Adria had tasked him with the child's education, and entrusted Praemas with her continued well-being, having as little to do with the child herself as possible. Privately, Tomin believed that matters would go more smoothly if the Prior also had as little to do with Chaia as possible, but who was he to criticise the Orici?

**l**

In the middle of a cavernous foyer, a roiling purple cloud slowly formed, lightening flickering within. Tinged with a strange sort of orange-green at the edges, it attracted the attention of everyone present and brought business to a halt as they all stopped to stare at the unusual sight. Security guards swooped down to investigate. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the cloud vanished, leaving behind two human women, one with bright red hair and the other, a blonde, carrying a strange-looking axe.

"Um, Wills?" Buffy said uncertainly. "Is it just me or do you see dinosaurs too?"

"Mm-hmm!" her red-headed friend squeaked, eyeing the Tyrannosaurus Rex with misgivings as she nodded frantically.

"Good," said Buffy. "I was worried it was just me. Okay!" raising her voice, she hefted the scythe, striding forwards. "I'm looking for my sister, Dawn Summers. Anyone seen her? Let's see a show of claws."

**l**

"Surprise!"

"Okay..." said Cam, staring at the crowd of people in front of them. There were SG-teams, _lots_ of SG-teams, mixed in with the colourfully dressed natives, all clapping and cheering and looking generally pleased to see them. Balloons and bunting decorated the walls of the Grecian-looking temple. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say this isn't P2C-106."

"It is not," Teal'c solemnly confirmed.

"We're on Argos," Daniel told him, pushing his glasses up his nose and blinking at the crowd.

"Where?" Cam asked.

"P3X-859," Sam elaborated for him.

"I don't understand," said Vala. "I thought we were going to an uninhabited planet?"

"Sir?" said Sam, looking at General O'Neill.

"Surprise!" he said with an unrepentant grin. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his BDU's, "I'm only going to be in town for one night and I figured, why not have a party?"

"On the planet where you aged thirty years in a week and almost died?" Cam asked incredulously. Belatedly remembering that he was talking to a General, he hurriedly tacked on a, "Sir."

"Hey," General O'Neill shrugged. "They know how to throw a party."

He bounded down the steps without a backwards glance, followed closely by Walter and General Landry. Left alone on the Stargate platform, SG-1 looked at each other as the party swung into action.

"This just like the General," said Sam, exasperation colouring her voice.

"Yep," agreed Daniel.

Sam groaned as she caught sight of the General's clone skulking in the shadows, "Is that...?"

"Yep," said Daniel, following her gaze.

"Great," Sam said unenthusiastically. Maybe she could fake a headache or something, she thought as she stomped down the stairs. Go home early, before she really did get a headache.

"Yep," Daniel said again, nodding slowly to himself as he watched her go. A hand grabbed his and he looked at Vala, standing next to him with an excited grin.

"Come on, Daniel!" she said, pulling him down the steps and into the party.

Cam looked at Teal'c and Teal'c looked back at him. Was Teal'c happy to be here? Cam couldn't tell.

"Hey!" a familiar voice called and they turned to see Andrew glaring up at them. "Some of us want to use the 'Gate."

"You are leaving already?" Teal'c asked as he walked down the stairs and, following him, Cam glanced at him suspiciously. Was that a hint of satisfaction?

"Yeah," said Andrew, pushing DHD buttons. "General Landry said that Martin Lloyd is leaving and I just know that if I don't take this opportunity to meet him, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

Andrew's face shone with the sincerity of his hero worship and Cam stared at him in disbelief. He couldn't imagine ever feeling that way about the alien TV producer, especially now that he'd met him.

"Indeed?" said Teal'c, one eyebrow arching high.

"Yeah," said Andrew as the Stargate bust into life. "I mean, I already missed the chance to meet him at the convention on Saturday!"

Cam frowned, confused. "What convention?" he asked. Andrew had been in Minnesota on Saturday, helping SG-1 and most of the rest of the guys here track down a radioactive mutant animal.

Andrew didn't hear him though, waving to them instead as he hurried up the stone plinth. "See you soon!" he called before he jumped through the wormhole.

"Indeed..." Teal'c rumbled, and there was no mistake about it this time. He definitely sounded disappointed.

**l**

Humming the Wormhole X-Treme theme to himself, the alien known on Earth as Martin Lloyd pressed the call button for the elevator and waited patiently. Despite the cancellation of his movie, he'd had a good day. The network had renewed his series instead and his agent was currently in discussions with them about televising the entire first season while they shot the second. He'd got lots of good ideas just hanging out with SG-1 for the day, even if they hadn't had any useful insights themselves. He couldn't wait to get some of them onto paper.

"Mr Lloyd! Excuse me... Mr Lloyd!"

Martin turned around to see who was calling his name. A slight young man in SGC uniform was sprinting towards him, an eager look on his face. The man skidded to a halt in front of him and Martin quickly checked out the badge on his arm. SG-13?

"Oh, my God!" the young man babbled. "I am so not worthy."

"Can I help you?" Martin asked him, confused. He was used to seeing this kind of behaviour at conventions, not on a military base.

The man giggled, a high-pitched, nervous sound, "_You_ want to help _me_? Wow!"

"Yeah," said Martin, wondering if the man had just escaped from the local asylum, somehow sneaked onto the base and changed into a uniform. "Well, I'm just leaving so..."

"I know!" the man said excitedly. "General Landry said that you weren't coming to the party because the network is going to renew the series and I just had to come and say congratulations!"

"Thanks," Martin said happily, preparing to launch into his favourite subject.

"I'm Andrew," the man told him. "Andrew Wells. I'm a huge fan."

"Really?" said Martin, surreptitiously pressing the call button again.

"Uh-huh," Andrew said enthusiastically. "I've got the collector's edition. Hey, have you got a minute?"

"Not really," Martin told him, wondering where the elevator was.

"It's just, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had for a TV series about vampyres," oblivious, Andrew began to pitch the idea anyway.

Martin sighed impatiently, "Vampires are so last century." He hit the button again, not bothering to conceal the gesture.

"I know," said Andrew. "It's about a Watcher-"

"Who watches the vampires?" bored already, Martin interrupted.

"No," Andrew deflated slightly. "He watches the Slayer. She's the one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to hunt the vampyres, to stop the spread of their evil..."

"Sounds great," lied Martin as the elevator arrived. "Why don't you type it up and sent it to me? Better yet, have your people call my people and we'll do lunch."

"Okay!" Andrew called excitedly as the elevator doors slid shut. He grinned at his reflection in the shiny doors.

Martin Lloyd thought his idea was great!

**l**

It was torture. No, it was worse than torture. All things considered, Jon thought he'd rather be tortured. Just when he'd thought things couldn't get worse, someone had put a CD of the Greatest Party Hits of all Time on. The Doc had immediately dragged Vala onto the deserted dance floor, leaving three very relieved men behind, grateful that they hadn't been forced to join them. Daniel had stuck around for a couple of for a couple of muttered sentences before he disappeared to places far less awkward. Which was how he and Oz had come to drift towards the groaning buffet tables. The drivel that was currently playing faded out, replaced by the distinctive beat of the Macarena.

"Aw, hell no," the muttered oath came from the man beside him and Jon glanced at Colonel Mitchell with sympathy.

"Whose brilliant idea was it to bring a stereo?" he asked rhetorically, sharing Mitchell's pain.

"That would be mine," the familiar voice came from behind them and Jon stiffened before he turned around. "Captain," Jack O'Neill greeted his clone neutrally.

"General," Jon nodded at the man he still had difficulty persuading himself that he wasn't, his voice equally bland.

"Carry on," Jack told him.

Jon let out the breath he hadn't realised that he was holding as Jack disappeared into the crowd. Beside him, Mitchell grinned in relief and Jon allowed himself to share the emotion. He and Jack had got away with it.

"Dude..." said Oz, standing at Jon's other side, his voice filled with awe.

Or not.

Ditching his plateful of cake, Jon hustled the werewolf away from the buffet table and Colonel Mitchell. Left behind, Cam stared after them with a baffled frown. What was all that about? Shrugging, he turned back to the buffet, trying desperately to ignore the loud music. God, he hated the Macarena!

_Dale a tu cuerpo alegria macarena  
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena  
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria macarena  
Eeeeeh, Macarena – Ai!_

Of all the songs to get stuck in her head, the Macarena was probably the worst. In the middle of teaching the others how to work as a team by having them all attack her at once, Faith found herself moving to the beat of music that only she could hear.

_Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena_  
Punch, kick, knee, elbow.

_Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa Buena_  
Stamp, jump, punch, pin.

_Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena_  
Kick, punch, elbow, throw.

_Eeeeeh, Macarena..._

"Ai!" sang Faith as she planted her foot squarely in Nya's chest, sending her flying across the room and into the wall. "Fuck! Shit! Sorry, Ny. You okay?"

Winded, Nya waved and nodded as she hauled herself back onto her feet and started trying to suck in air. It came in little pieces, each one bigger than the one before. Groaning, Mallie theatrically picked herself up off the floor, ignoring the hand Kay held out to help her.

"Okay guys," Faith said, walking a little away from them. "Take five. While I get this fucking _crap_ outta my head!"

"What crap?" easily distracted, Mallie forgot her injuries, both real and exaggerated.

_He was no good so I... A-haha a-hahahahaa..._

"Just a song," Faith told her. She sighed. "A really _bad_ song."

"What kind of song?" Mallie asked eagerly.

"I guess you could call it a dance song," said Faith, wishing it would get out of her head.

"What is dance?" asked Nya, having got her breath back by now.

Faith stared at her in disbelief, "You gotta be kidding me. You don't know what dancing is?"

Nya shook her head, looking guilty. As if it was her fault she'd been locked in a harem all her life. Although, not knowing how to dance was kinda weird now Faith came to think about it. Weren't Arabian dances famous? Or was that the nights? Still, as much as she didn't like it, there was something she could do about it.

"Okay..." she said, sighing in defeat. "It's called the Macarena, and it goes like this..."

_Dale a tu cuerpo alegria macarena  
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena  
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria macarena  
Eeeeeh, Macarena – Ai!_

Jon bundled Oz into a secluded corner next to a speaker, looking back over his shoulder to make sure that Mitchell had followed them. He hadn't and no-one was paying much attention to them. He turned back to Oz, a slightly desperate look in his eyes.

"It's not what you think," he started.

"You're General O'Neill," Oz stated calmly. He sniffed slightly, "I'm guessing... clone?"

"Okay," said Jon. "Maybe it is what you think." The two men stared at one another for a moment, "You can't tell anyone."

"Top secret?" asked Oz.

"Clearance up the wazoo," Jon told him.

"Cool," said Oz, nodding slowly.

The tension between them cleared and Jon turned around to survey the party. The Stargate burst into life as Oz walked forward to stand beside him and Andrew stumbled out of the rippling wormhole. Spotting Teal'c across the room, he waved excitedly and dropped into the crowd to push his way towards the Jaffa. Teal'c immediately headed in the opposite direction.

"So how come you're a teenager?" Oz asked curiously.

**l**

_"Faith chose to come back to the mountain and go through the Stargate. Besides, if I'm reading that prophecy right, it's probably a good thing she did. She could turn out to be an ace up our sleeve."  
"And if she dies?"  
"Then the Earth is doomed! Besides... I got the distinct impression that you two couldn't stand each other. Isn't that why you destroyed the Mind-Melder?"  
"If you say so, sir." A bottle clunked onto wood. A chair creaked, "If it's all the same to you, sir, I think I'll turn in now."_

Frowning, Ba'al turned off the recording that his sources had just delivered to him. Despite the highly confidential nature of their conversation, neither General Landry nor Colonel Mitchell had said much that he hadn't already known, with the possible exception of General Landry's inference that SG-13 weren't welcome at the SGC and half of the Doctor's name. This Mind-Melder (whatever that was) and prophecy were new information though. He'd never heard of either in his extensive research into Faith Lehane's history.

Almost idly, he ran through what he did know about her.

Born in 1983, as this planet reckoned dates, she'd entered America's system of child fostering in 1996. She'd run away in 1998 and hadn't appeared again until the warrant for her arrest for double homicide in 2000. Despite her arrest shortly afterwards, she hadn't been tried and convicted until after her birthdate in 2001, making her over the age of eighteen at her trial. Which made it all the more interesting that she'd been given a full pardon not more than two years later, especially in light of her full confession at the time of her arrest and all throughout her trial. From then until the time of her disappearance, she had lived in Cleveland, working as a freelance associate for the New Watcher Council, an organisation that seemed to have sprung, fully formed, in 2002. She had lived with her lover, a man called Robin Wood, who also worked for the Council.... Ba'al's internal list ground to a halt.

The Council... What had they said about "the Council"? Playing back the conversation, Ba'al quickly found the part he wanted.

_"You know that the only people cleared to read their reports before they're sent to the Council are the President and myself."_

So... SG-13 reported to the Council. How did this shadowy company come to have so much influence over the SGC and the President of the United States of America? It wasn't even the same President!

It was definitely a lead worth following up, certainly a much better one than the garbled report from one of his fellow clones of a Tau'ri male turning into a giant dog in the SGC infirmary. He still didn't know how to explain to the Original that it sounded more like a creature from Tau'ri fiction than anything he had ever encountered.

**l**

SGC members were leaving the party in dribs and drabs. Judging the time right to make a strategic exit before anyone else cottoned on to the fact that he and Jack were one and the same person, and telling Oz that he'd tell him everything he wanted to know over dinner, Jon inserted them into the middle of SG-14 as the other team dialled home. One of the good things about being a teenager again was that the owner of O'Malley's no longer recognised him to enforce his lifelong ban. One of the bad things was that he couldn't have a beer with his steak anymore.

Across the room, Vala and Jool were taking a break from the teeming dance floor at one of the small tables that had been set up around the room. Massaging her aching feet, Vala eyed Jool with envy. Despite her energetic dancing style, her friend showed no signs of the exhaustion Vala was feeling. In fact, Vala didn't think she'd even broken a sweat on the dance floor.

"Sam!" catching sight of the blonde Colonel as she walked past their table, Vala called out to her. "Join us," she invited.

"Actually," said Sam. "I've got a headache. I was just heading back to the SGC."

"Oh," said Vala, slightly disappointed. "Have you seen Daniel?"

"I think he already left," Sam told her, and turned to go herself.

"Wait!" cried Vala and Sam stopped, turning back. "We'll come with you. Won't we?" she said, looking at Jool.

"Um, okay," said Jool, looking mildly surprised. "Yeah. Let me just grab Andrew before Teal'c loses his temper and knocks him out. Meet you at the DHD."

Before either of them could object, she disappeared into the dance floor, making a beeline for Andrew and Teal'c. Glancing at Vala, Sam smiled at her when she realised that the other woman was looking back at her. Together, they set out towards the Stargate, pushing their way through the crowd.

"Great party!" Vala commented cheerfully.

"Yeah," said Sam, her voice laden with sarcasm that Vala didn't notice.

To her surprise, they arrived at the DHD at the same time as General, practically bumping into each another. Startled at finding themselves in sudden close proximity, Sam and the General jumped hastily back from one another and then tried to pretend as though they hadn't and everything was perfectly normal. Sam was the first to recover.

"Leaving already, sir?" she asked brightly as Vala watched them interestedly.

"Yeah..." said the General. "You know how it is. Places to go. People to see..." he glanced briefly at her and Sam felt the heat of his gaze. "How 'bout you?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "How come you're ducking out early?"

"Headache," Sam lied smoothly.

"Ah," he nodded his head, rocking back and forth on his heels. "So, why aren't we dialling this thing?"

"We're waiting for someone," Vala told him. "I had a _wonderful_ time, by the way..."

"Peachy," said Jack. "Did'ya try the cake? Great cake."

There was a sort of muffled squeak from behind him and Jack turned around to see a short sandy-haired teenager and a yellow-eyed woman with her red hair pulled back in a long red plait, both dressed in BDU's, standing behind him.

"You liked my cake?" the kid asked with a tremulous smile.

"Uh, yeah..." Jack said as Carter started dialling the 'Gate. "Sure."

The kid squeaked again, "This is the best day ever!"

Jack checked out the patches as the Stargate activated with a ka-woosh. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find that they read SG-13. So this was Jon's team. Two thirds of it anyway.

"Doctor Wilson, I presume," he said to the redhead as they all climbed the steps up to the 'Gate. "And are you the watcher or the werewolf?" he asked the kid.

"I'm Andrew," the kid told him, puffing up his chest. "Andrew Wells, watcher and warlock extraordinaire!"

Jack stepped through the wormhole and had to wait until they popped out the other before he replied, "Really?"

"Not really," Doctor Wilson replied, glaring at Andrew as they walked down the ramp.

Jack stopped at the bottom to the ramp. Looking around the familiar 'Gateroom, he sighed. For eight years this place had been more of a home to him than his own house. He missed it every day.

"Well, I guess this is where we go our separate ways," he said. "Carter."

"Sir," she replied, her blue eyes intent on his.

"Aren't you coming to the infirmary?" Doctor Wilson asked with a frown and, too late, Jack remembered that she was a medical doctor.

"Not this time," he said, hoping his rank would let him get away with it. He glanced at Carter and quickly away.

"But it's standard protocol," said Andrew. "I mean, surely you... know..." he fell silent under Jack's glare.

"General," said Jool, hoping to reason with him. "You were once infected by the Argosian nanites. Who's to say that somehow, during the evening, someone didn't touch something they shouldn't and they've reactivated? Shouldn't we make sure before we let you leave?"

"I think it's highly unlikely," said Sam, knowing that she was helping the General to break all of the rules but fully understanding why he didn't want to go to the infirmary. They'd run a DNA test, even though they no longer had a baseline to work with, so that it could be forwarded to Washington, where he was based. And the computer would show his DNA to be identical to Captain Jonathon O'Neil's. "We destroyed the Argosian nanites when we transmitted the shutdown signal and all of the equipment there was carefully dismantled. I'm sure that General O'Neill's fine."

"Yeah, sure, betcha," said Jack. "It's not like I'm not planning to get checked over by my own Doc. No offence. It's just he has smaller needles."

Doctor Wilson's eyes narrowed and Jack had a horrible feeling that he'd just made a mistake. Suddenly the slayer on Jon's team was reminding him an awful lot of another petite, redhaired doctor.

"And supposing you're a Goa'uld?" she asked frostily.

"Aw, for cryin' out loud!" the General cried and something at the back of Jool's mind nagged for attention. She ignored it, focussing on General O'Neill. "Wouldn't you be able to "sense" it if I was?" he demanded, making inverted commas over his speech.

"Yes," Jool admitted. "But I don't know if I could sense nanites."

"I thought we already established that that's impossible?" said Sam.

"Ah... But would General Landry agree?" Jool asked pointedly.

"Why don't we find out?" bluffed Jack.

**l**

Daniel was just waiting to be told he could go when Jack and Sam entered the infirmary, followed by Andrew Wells, Vala, Doctor Wilson and General Landry. Unbidden, he glanced at the furthest bed from the door, where Jon was grumbling about the size of the nurse's needle. He'd really hoped he could be out of the infirmary, preferably out of the mountain, when this happened. He tried to attract Doctor Lam's attention as she bustled towards the small group but she ignored him.

"Just got back?" she asked them with a smile. "Take a bed and we'll get right to you."

"Start with General O'Neill," General Landry told her grimly.

"Okay," said Caroline, frowning as she pulled a pair of gloves out of her pocket. She'd already cleared her father when he returned. Another appearance in the infirmary could only be a bad sign. "Any particular reason?"

"He didn't want to come," Jool told her as, behind them, Daniel slipped of his bed and crept towards the door.

"Don't even think about it, Spacemonkey," Jack warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Daniel said lightly, bowing to the inevitable and turning around to face the music.

The infirmary began to fall quiet as everyone realised that something big was happening in front of them. Which was, of course, when Jon noticed them.

"Aw, crap!" exclaimed Jon, as he noticed the group of people standing near the door. Unfortunately, his words fell into a lull in the room's noise levels and everyone turned to look at him. "Nice going," he told himself, as many people do. In this case, however, he was talking to his fifty-year-old self.

"Captain!" Hank barked in his best parade-ground voice from across the room. "You know something about this?"

"Yes, sir!" Jon would've saluted if he hadn't had a needle stuck in his arm.

"Care to share with the rest of us?" his Commanding Officer asked.

"It's classified, sir," Jon told him.

Hank swelled up and turned purple and for one horrible moment, Jon thought he was going to have a heart attack.

"It really is classified, sir," Carter said quietly and Hank deflated, staring at her as if she'd just betrayed him. Which, Jon supposed, she had. Kinda.

"You knew about this?" he asked her.

"Yes, sir," she admitted.

"What the hell is going on here?" shouted Hank.

"May I suggest," Jack said smoothly. "That this is a conversation best held somewhere with a touch more privacy?"

"This better be good," Hank told him.

"Oh, it is," Jack promised. "You might want to dig up Mitchell as well."

"Go to hell," Hank snarled reflexively. "Someone find Colonel Mitchell. The rest of you, briefing room. Now!"

**l**

_Ten Years Later..._

"Just one final question," said the interviewer, stopping Martin half out of his chair. Martin sat back down, tucking the microphone wire he had been disentangling himself back from out of sight. "Is it true that you have another series coming out this summer?"

"Oh, you heard about that?" asked Martin, pleased by the thought of extra publicity. "Yeah, it's just a summer filler, only twelve episodes, but we're all very excited about it."

"What's it about?" the interviewer asked.

"It's about a girl," Martin told them. "Joan. By day, she's an ordinary teenage girl but at night, she's a supernatural warrior, fighting the forces of darkness."

"How did you come up with the idea?"

"Actually, it was Andrew Wells, the writer-slash-producer's idea originally," Martin admitted. "He pitched it to me a few years ago but he wanted to focus it to focus on Joan's mentor, Jeeves. I said to him at the time, 'Andrew, it's a good idea but you need to sex it up for the audience. Focus on the girl.' He went away, rewrote the script and then sent it to me..."

"I had to put a geas on him to get him to call me back!" Andrew complained when the interviewer caught up with him later.

"A geas?" the interviewer asked, confused.

"Geese!" Andrew quickly corrected himself, laughing nervously. "I, um, had to send him geese before he called me back," he lied unconvincingly. "For Thanksgiving."

"I couldn't stop calling him for days!" Martin exclaimed. "Because... uh, it was so good. Every time I picked up the phone, I called him. We talked for hours."

"It was so cool!" Andrew enthused. "Martin's a really great guy and he had loads of ideas."

"Finally, we pitched it to the network," Martin told the interviewer. "And, of course, they loved it! We start filming in a couple of months."

"And you're also involved in talks about a third television series?" the interviewer asked Martin.

"Yeah," said Martin. "There's nothing official yet but It's a spin-off idea we've been kicking around for a couple of years now. It's about a private investigator who's secretly an alien! We're calling it The Dark Avenger. For now, anyway."


	20. The Bonds of Friendship

**A/N**

Oops. Just realised that I've been calling Langara Kelowna for something like the last five chapters so it may come as some surprise to you when Faith and co. touch down on Langara.

I know that I've been saying that the updates are going to slow, but now that I've started writing the Langaran plotline, it's just pouring out. On the other hand, college has started up again and I'm moving in a couple of weeks so who knows how long it'll be before I update again. In the meantime...

Enjoy!

**The Bonds of Friendship**

"Are you sure?" Andrew checked.

"I am," Teal'c told him with the barest inclination of his head. Some Jaffa might have called it an insult.

"But General O'Neill, Colonel Carter and Jon are going to tell us something top secret," tempted Andrew.

"Nevertheless, Andrew Wells," said Teal'c. "I believe I will remain here." He was well aware that O'Neill would likely call him 'chicken' for choosing this path, but on this occasion he was content to be so.

"Hey," Colonel Mitchell called from the top of the Stargate platform. "Wormhole's open!"

"I'm coming!" Andrew told him, hurrying up the steps and through the Stargate behind Colonel Mitchell.

"So what's this all about?" asked Cam as he jogged down the ramp, Andrew trotting at his heels.

"Don't know," said Andrew, having already told Cam the little he knew.

"C'mon," said Cam. "You work with Captain O'Neil."

"You work with Colonel Carter!" Andrew pointed out as they left the 'Gateroom.

"You think it has anything to do with his file?" wondered Cam, taking the stairs up into the control room two at a time.

"What file?" Andrew asked.

"Never mind," hissed Cam as they stared up the staircase to the briefing room.

"What file?" Andrew repeated in a loud whisper.

Cam glared at him and he shut up. A good thing too, because there was quite a crowd waiting for them around the large table. His team, SG-13, Caroline Lam and both Generals. He quickly slipped into a vacant chair, trying, and failing, to catch Sam's eye. Daniel wasn't looking at him either. Torn between the choice of a seat next to Jon or a seat next to General Landry, Andrew hovered uncertainly.

"Now that we're all here," General Landry said, ignoring him and speaking to his fellow General. "Perhaps you'd care to explain exactly what is going on in my base."

Jack opened his mouth, thought about what he was going to say and shut it again, looking at Jon. Stuck with the job of explaining, Jon looked at Hank, opened his mouth, wondered where to begin and shut it again. Jack and Jon looked at each other.

"Jon's General O'Neill's clone," said Oz.

"What?" asked Hank, not sure he had heard correctly.

"How?" Caroline wanted to know. "I mean, I know how it's possible, but... you're a teenager!" she said to Jon.

"Really?" said Jon, in mock-astonishment.

"The Asgard placed a genetic marker in General O'Neill's DNA," Sam explained. "It was designed to stop any attempts to manipulate the General's DNA. That's why Jon failed to mature fully."

"Gee, thanks," Jon told her.

"You mean, he's going to be a teenager forever?" Jool asked, horrified. Frankly, what she'd just learned was enough to make her want to hide, possibly gibbering, in her room until it was all over and she didn't even want to think about what that meant about that time in England... Not thinking about it! Thinking about how awful it would be to be stuck a teenager forever.

"No," Sam told her and Jool relaxed. Slightly. "Thor was able to repair his DNA and Jon's maturing normally."

"Question," said Oz, holding up his hand. "What's the Asgard? Apart from the city of the Norse Gods."

"Good question!" exclaimed Vala.

"They're a race of aliens from the Ida galaxy," Sam told them. "Allies of ours. They're about a meter tall, large heads, big black eyes... grey."

"You're talking about Roswell Grey's," Jool realised.

"Essentially, yes," said Sam.

"Cool," said Oz, nodding thoughtfully.

"Question," said Vala.

"How did it happen?" Hank asked, looking between the two men on opposite sides of the table but slouched in exactly the same pose and wondering how he could have missed the resemblance.

"Loki," Jack and Jon spat the name in identical tones.

"Okay..." said Cam. "That's creepy."

"You're telling me!" said Jack.

"Hey!" Jon protested immediately.

"Aw, c'mon!" Jack said to him. "It's as creepy as hell and you know it!"

"Maybe it's a little bit creepy," Jon admitted grudgingly. "When you do it."

"When _I_ do it?" Jack exclaimed, sputtering indignantly.

"Who the heck is Loki?" Hank demanded, talking over the top of them.

"He was, or is, a renegade Asgard scientist," Daniel told him. "He was expelled from the Asgard High Council when he was caught performing unsanctioned human experiments."

"They had sanctioned experiments?" Jool interrupted, appalled.

"That's what I said!" cried Jack, pleased to have some support, even after so long.

"Loki decided to continue his experiments with Jack," Daniel continued. "Unfortunately, he didn't know about the marker."

"So... Captain O'Neil is really General O'Neill?" Vala asked, wanting to make sure she had everything straight.

The question got four different answers at the same time.

"Kinda," said Sam.

"No," Jack insisted.

"In a nutshell," Jon told her.

"Sort of..." temporised Daniel.

Vala frowned, more than a little confused.

"Which is it?" Hank wanted to know.

Jon frowned, clearly unhappy. "I was cloned back when the General was still a lowly Colonel. Which is of course, high above my current pay grade."

"Legally, you're eighteen," Jack snapped, in what was clearly an old argument. "You shouldn't even be a Captain."

"How old are you?" Jool tentatively asked Jon.

"Legally, mentally or AC?" Jon asked flippantly. "After Cloning," he explained when they all looked confused. "Couldn't think of another ally."

"Oh," said the Doc. "Um... since you were cloned."

"I just had my third birthday," Jon told her honestly. He tried to hold her gaze with his but she looked away. His stomach churned as he imagined all of the things she must be thinking.

"What about mentally?" Vala asked him, batting her eyelashes in a disturbing way.

"Six," Daniel and Carter replied together.

"Hey!" Jack and Jon protested at the same time.

"Who else knows about this?" asked Hank.

"Siler... Walter... Blasdale... Bill Lee..." Jon told him, ticking them off on his fingers.

"Why don't I just send you a list?" Jack suggested, kicking him under the table. Jon kicked back.

"Well..." Hank sighed. "Under the circumstances I think you'd better skip General O'Neill's DNA test," he told his daughter. "And any other test that might prove his link to the Captain. I don't think I need to tell you all not to mention this conversation to anyone."

"Thanks, Hank," Jack said gratefully, getting up to go.

"That doesn't mean you get to skip the medical entirely, Jack," Hank told him.

"It doesn't?" Jack said innocently. "Oh."

"After I see you in my office," Hank said to him, also standing, everyone else's cue to leave.

"Glad it's not me," Jon muttered to Oz.

"You're next, Captain," Hank told him coldly.

"Yes, sir," said Jon, moving out of his way.

He tripped over something on the floor and fell. Scowling when he saw what, or rather who, it was that he was sprawled next to, Jon looked up at them.

"When the hell did Andrew faint?" he demanded.

Oz shrugged and everyone else looked thoughtful as they tried to remember. The Doc still wasn't looking at him.

"Does he do that often?" Jack asked.

"It's probably just the excitement," said the Doc, finally looking in his general direction. "Give him some air. I'll take him to the infirmary."

Picking the unconscious watcher up in her arms, all without touching or looking at Jon, the Doc was the first to leave the room, leaving them all to follow her or not. Jon picked himself up off the floor, trying to act like he wasn't staring after her.

"Gotta love that slayer strength," Jack said, watching her leave.

Vala frowned and turned to Daniel, asking, "What's a slayer?"

Daniel sighed, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. He was getting a headache.

"Okay," said Caroline. "Everyone who's been off-world and hasn't been checked out yet, back to the infirmary." Despite general all-round grumbling (all of it inaudible) they obeyed her. With the exception of Jon, who hung back as Jack and Hank disappeared into Hank's office, shutting the door behind them.

"I'll be along after I speak to Hank, Caroline," he said absently, his eyes on the two figures closeted in Hank's office.

He reminded her so much of the Uncle Jack who'd played with her as a child just then that she could only stare silently at him. Her throat ached with tears for him, for what he'd lost. Tears that he wouldn't want her to shed. Especially not all over him. With an effort, Caroline pulled herself together.

"Half an hour, Captain," she warned him with a strained smile. "Or I'll come looking for you. You can tell my father that too."

Inside his office, Caroline's father was currently pouring two very generous glasses of whiskey and wondering just what the hell to say to one of his oldest friends.

"Thanks," said Jack as Hank handed him one of the glasses.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Hank asked him.

"I couldn't," Jack told him simply. He swirled the whiskey round in his glass before he drank, "Clearance. Basically, unless you're the President or were there, you're not rated to know. For Jon's protection."

"Is that why you sent him back here? For his protection?" asked Hank. "It was bound to come out sooner or later, Jack."

"I know," said Jack, meeting his gaze head on.

"You planned this," Hank accused, sinking into his chair in shock. "You set it up."

"Not all of it!" Jack protested. "Just... most of it."

"Why?" Hank wanted to know, desperate for his friend to explain it to him.

"You wanna know why?" Jack demanded.

"Yes!" exclaimed Hank.

"Because ever since I left this place, there hasn't been a day when I haven't wished I was back!" Jack told him passionately. "And I know, however hard that is for me, it's gotta be ten times worse for him! And I kinda... I kinda feel like I owe it to him, Hank," he finished grudgingly. "And don't you dare tell him that!"

"But why now?" Hank asked. "Why not in a couple of years, when his age isn't so noticeable?"

"Because he wasn't going into the military," Jack told him. "And with his grades, he wasn't getting into the SGC as a civilian. Besides, I needed someone I could trust to lead SG-13, someone with experience but who wouldn't have any trouble fitting in with whoever they sent."

"Yourself?" said Hank, still sceptical about the idea.

"Who better?" asked Jack, and Hank had to admit, it did make a certain kind of twisted sense. Why get somebody else to do the job when you could get yourself to do it?

"I'm gonna be late for a budget meeting with the Joint Chiefs if I don't get to the infirmary and let the bloodsuckers drain me dry," said Jack, glancing at his watch.

"Go," Hank said wearily.

"I'll drop by next time I'm in the area," Jack told him, walking to the door leading into the hallway and pulling it open. "Kick your ass at chess,"

"You wish!" Hank said with a chuckle.

Jack pulled the door shut and was gone. Hank sagged at his desk, feeling every bit of his age. Just when he thought things couldn't get any more complicated... Wearily, he stood and walked to the other door leading in to his office, picking up another glass and the bottle of whiskey on the way. He opened the door and the man waiting in the other room for him stood up.

Now that he knew who the Captain really was, it was like looking back through the years. He could almost see the brash twenty-one-year-old pilot he'd met in 'Nam all those years ago. Once he filled out a bit... It made Hank feel old.

They stared at each other in silence for long moments while Hank tried to decide what to call him. Finally, he just disappeared back into his office, sitting back down behind his desk and tidying Jack's glass away into a drawer as the Captain entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"Sit down," Hank told him, pouring whiskey into the fresh glass and topping up his own.

The captain sat and they stared at each other for a while. Hank slowly drank his whiskey. The Captain didn't touch his glass.

"What do I call you?" Hank asked eventually.

"Captain, sir," he said with a bitter smile.

"Knock it off, Captain," Hank blazed. "And for God's sake, have a drink!" The Captain picked up his glass and Hank relented, "That's better. Now, let's try again. What do I call you?"

"Jon," he told him, and sipped his whiskey. "That's who I am now."

"But you used to be Jack?" said Hank.

"I have his memories," said Jon. "Everything that makes him who he is, up until three years ago. Since then, I've mostly been trying to be me."

"And who are you?" asked Hank.

"Now?" said Jon. "Captain Jonathon O'Neil, one l, of the United States Air Force. Leader of SG-13. I like hockey, hate Fruit Loops and have a thing for Mary Steenburgen..."

"Still?" Hank raised his eyebrows.

"Pleased to meet you, sir," finished Jon, offering Hank his hand.

Hank shook hands with him over his desk. "Now what?" he asked.

"Business as usual," Jon told him. "You go back to trying to find a way to defeat the Ori, I go back to looking for Faith, and we both pretend like we never knew each other in another life." Hank scoffed and Jon's lips twisted bitterly. "It's for the best, Hank," he said quietly. "Trust me."

"Mmm..." said Hank, not convinced and wondering why Jon was. It didn't seem like Jack in the slightest. "I suppose you'd better get yourself to the infirmary. Before your Goddaughter comes looking for you."

"Hank..." Jon tried to warn him again.

"Dismissed, Captain!" General Landry snapped and Jon downed the rest of his whiskey.

"Yes, sir!" he said, putting his empty glass down on the desk and getting up to go.

"Oh, Captain?" Hank stopped him with the door open, before he could leave the room. "Do you still play chess?"

"Not in years," Jon told him.

"Good!" said Hank. "My place, Friday. Twenty-one hundred hours. Sounds like I might have a chance at beating you for once!"

Jon grinned cheekily, "Don't bet on it, sir."

**l**

Oz was waiting for him outside the infirmary when the nurses and doctors had given him a good going-over and sucked out a couple of pints of blood for their tests. He straightened away from the wall he was slouching against as soon as he saw Jon, his concerned eyes meeting Jon's weary, wary ones, until they skittered away.

"You okay?" the werewolf asked.

"I'm fine," Jon told him shortly, walking down the hallway.

"Andrew?" asked Oz, following him.

"They're keeping him in for the night," said Jon, lengthening his stride so that Oz had to up his pace to keep up with him.

"You want a ride?"

"For crying out loud!" Jon exploded. "I said I'm fine!"

"Cool," said Oz, sticking close to him anyway. "Can you give me one?" Jon turned on him. "I'll buy the beer," Oz offered before he could open his mouth.

**l**

Kay's hands rested gently on the controls in front of her as the computer counted down the seconds left until their arrival in the Langaran system. She kept her eyes on where she would shortly be "driving". The ship shuddered slightly as the hyperdrive engine faded out and they dropped out of hyperspace. Stars appeared instead of the flowing colours of hyperspace and in front of them hung Langara, bands of white clouds girdling her blue and green surface.

And beside Langara floated a silver oval, a glowing white light centred at one end.

"Shit!" Faith exclaimed as Kay activated the tel'tak's cloak.

"That's not Goa'uld," said Kay, and she was surprised at how steady her voice sounded.

"It's an Ori ship," Mallie told her grimly.

"Tell me they didn't spot us," begged Faith, throwing herself into the other seat and frowning at the console in front of her before selecting an option.

Kay checked her own instruments, content to leave the tel'tak drifting in space for the moment. The news was good. The Ori ship hadn't altered its course and there was nothing that might indicate that they were bringing their weapons online.

"I think we got away with it," she told Faith.

"What do we do now?" asked Nya and everyone looked at Faith.

She stared silently into space, thinking before she spoke, "Have we got enough fuel to get to another planet with a Stargate?"

"No," answered Kay.

"Then we land," Faith told them.

"Anywhere in particular, or did you just want me to aim for a green bit?" Kay asked, setting her hands on the tel'tak's controls.

"Can we scan for the Stargate?" Faith wanted to know as the sublight engines whined into life. "No point making this any harder than it already is."

"I'll need to get a little closer," Kay told her.

"Do it," Faith ordered.

**l**

For the first time since she had become a slayer, Jool didn't jump out of bed the moment she woke up, eager to face the coming day. Instead, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling with a sigh. Could she get away with hiding under her duvet all day?

Maybe. But she wouldn't. Already she was moving with restless energy, pushing back the duvet and turning the light on as she got to her feet. Sometimes being a slayer sucked. Other times it wasn't so bad, she conceded as her gaze fell on the empty gallon tub of ice-cream she'd liberated from the kitchens last night. The phrase, 'a moment on the lips...' had no meaning for a slayer.

Maybe Teal'c would be up and she could whack seven bells of crap out of him to make herself feel better, she thought despondently as she grabbed the first clothes that came to hand. She couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the idea however, and Teal'c, she suddenly realised, Teal'c must know about Jon.

But Teal'c couldn't know the worst of it, she comforted herself. He couldn't know that she had slept with Jon. No-one knew, apart from Oz, and **he** had already known about Jon too! How long had Oz been keeping that from her? Had he known when she asked him for help researching General O'Neill? Had he, and Jon, been laughing at her all along?

At least she wasn't the only one to have been kept in the dark. Andrew had been just as shocked as her. Which reminded her, she should pop into the infirmary and see how he was doing. Which would, unfortunately, involve going outside. If only she lived off the base; she might have been tempted to pull a sickie for the first time in her life.

**l**

"Steady... steady..." Faith cautioned as Kay piloted the tel'tak towards the landing site she had selected. "You're coming in too fast!"

"Do you want to fly this thing?" Kay snapped, all of her attention focussed on trying to land the spaceship. The tel'tak swooped low over a forest, Kay aiming for a clearing in the distance.

"Watch out for that tree!" Mallie and Faith exclaimed at the same time.

Somehow, Kay managed to pull the tel'tak up and they scraped over the top of the tree.

"Brake!" cried Faith as the clearing loomed towards them.

"I am," Kay gritted through her teeth.

The tel'tak touched down in the clearing, bounced into the air, still hurtling towards the trees in front of them, landed again, skidded, and thudded into a large tree. They all stayed frozen for a moment, hardly able to believe that they were safely on the ground. Just starting to relax, Nya jumped as the tree toppled onto the tel'tak.

"We should move that," commented Faith.

**l**

Andrew was sitting up in bed, looking bored, when Jool stuck her head around the doorway. He brightened as soon as he saw her, sitting up straighter.

"Jool!" he cried. "Oh my God! This is so cool! I can't believe-"

Moving unnaturally quickly, Jool had her hand over his mouth before he could say any more.

"Shut. Up!" she growled, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention. Thankfully no-one was. "Have you told anyone?"

Under her restraining hand, Andrew shook his head, his eyes round as he stared up at her.

"Good," Jool said, letting go of him and stepping back. "Caroline!" she called to that lady. "Can Andrew go?" Caroline nodded and Jool grabbed Andrew.

"I'm not dressed!" protested Andrew as she dragged him towards the door.

"Dress later," Jool told him. "Talk now."

**l**

The tree dragged to one side of the ship, Faith wiped her grimy hands on her pants as she and Mallie turned back to the tel'tak. The dark-haired slayer was back in her BDU's, finally clean but still stained and torn. She was starting to regret her choice of clothing though and wondered if she had time to go change into Anise's clothes. She'd probably still stand out but at least she wouldn't be dressed in an Earth uniform. Before she and Mallie could enter the tel'tak however, Nya and Kay appeared in doorway, both carrying large bags in each hand.

"What's that?" Faith asked curiously, not having seen the bags before.

"Nya made them," Kay told her, her one. Faith deftly snatched it out of the air and examining it.

"I helped!" said Mallie, accepting the bag Nya handed to her and slinging the strap over her head and under her arm.

"I thought they might help us to blend in," Nya told Faith shyly.

"Good idea," Faith praised. "We're still gonna stick out like sore thumbs until we can steal some clothes though."

"Do you want to change before we leave?" asked Kay.

"Nah," said Faith, shrugging as she slipped the bag over her head. "Least this way I blend into the vegetation. Weapons?"

"Zat'nik'tels in your bag," Kay told her. "I thought the staff weapons might stand out a bit."

Her knife was strapped to her side, her cigarettes were in her pocket... Faith was good to go. "Stick close," she ordered as Kay shut the door behind them. "And don't get seen."

They moved cautiously through the woods, making for the city a short distance away. The city where they would find the Stargate and, probably, a shitload of Ori soldiers. Maybe even a Prior. Faith just hoped Adria wasn't here.

Kay's scans had revealed that the planet wasn't at war with the Ori. Which could only mean that they were too late and the Ori had already converted the population, by force or faith. They wouldn't be able to trust anyone. This was a simple recon mission. Find the Stargate, see how well it was guarded and get back to the ship to come up with a plan.

The forest led up to the city and Faith called a halt as she caught sight of red brick, wanting to know what they were walking into. Moving forward on her own, she was pleased to discover that the buildings were houses and that some of the gardens had lines of washing pegged out. Pleased and suspicious. Things were going far too well.

**l**

Somehow, Jool managed to keep Andrew quiet until they got to her office. By the time they arrived, however, Andrew was practically vibrating with suppressed questions. As soon as Jool shut the door, he launched into them.

"What's going on? Why wouldn't you let me speak? When's Jon coming in?"

"I forgot you were unconscious when General Landry told us we couldn't tell anyone," Jool said heavily, sitting down behind her desk.

"Why not?" asked Andrew, sitting in one of the armchairs in front of her.

"Use the brains God gave you, Andrew!" Jool told him. "What do you think the Trust would do if they found out Jon not only worked here, but also had all of General O'Neill's memories?"

Andrew scrunched his forehead up, thinking hard, "Kidnap him?"

"And that would be...?" coaxed Jool.

"Bad..." said Andrew.

"And if Ba'al found out?" asked Jool. "I've read the mission files. He and General O'Neill have quite a history. Or any Goa'uld for that matter? Or the Ori?"

"Okay, already!" said Andrew. "I get it! It still sucks." He pouted.

"Yeah, well, it'd suck more if anyone found out," Jool told him. Her stomach grumbled and she frowned, "Have you had breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry," Andrew said sulkily.

"Well I am," said Jool, standing. "Come on, you can make something nice for when Jon comes in."

"Fine..." Andrew sighed, getting up.

Walking through the SGC corridors, Jool was acutely aware of every glance that came their way. The grey walls of the base seemed to press in around her and for the first time since she'd arrived, she felt claustrophobic. It seemed to take forever to get to the mess and as soon as they got there, Andrew scuttled into the kitchen, leaving Jool on her own. She grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at an empty table with her back to the majority of the room.

It would take a while for Andrew's cooking to make it into the room and she really didn't feel like being sociable. So was unfortunate that Vala slid into the seat opposite her just as she was thinking that. Jool summoned up a smile from somewhere.

"Hi!" Vala greeted her brightly.

"Morning," said Jool. She couldn't bring herself to say that it was good.

"Where were you last night?" asked Vala. "I looked for you after Daniel left."

"I had an early night," Jool told her. Which she'd mostly spent tossing and turning, before finally falling asleep right when she was on the verge of getting up.

"Where's Captain O'Neil?" asked Vala and Jool suddenly felt queasy. "Is he in yet?"

"I haven't seen him," she said through clenched teeth. "Andrew's in the kitchen. He's fine."

"Good," Vala said, clearly uninterested in Andrew. "Tell me all about him!"

"Andrew?" asked Jool, deliberately misunderstanding. "He's twenty-five. Born in Sunnydale..."

"Not Andrew, silly!" Vala interrupted her. "Captain O'Neil. I mean, I know he's just like the General but I only met **him** yesterday so..."

"I really don't think this is the place to have this conversation," Jool said desperately, looking around the half-empty room.

"Nonsense, darling," Vala told her. "No-one's close enough to hear us. What do you think he's like in bed?"

Unfortunately drinking at the time, Jool sprayed coffee all down herself. "Vala!" she exclaimed, shocked and terrified.

"All that youthful stamina, combined with decades of experience," Vala wiggled in her seat as she daydreamed. "It gives me tingles just thinking about it."

"Vala Mal Doran!" cried Jool, stopping Vala in her tracks. "Wash your mouth out with soap! You should be ashamed of yourself."

Vala gaped at her. Surely Jool knew she was just fantasising? She would never act on it. The Captain wasn't a patch on her Daniel.

"If you'll excuse me," Jool said formally. "Oz is here."

Picking up her cup of coffee, she left Vala sitting on her own. As Vala watched her walk away, she wondered how Jool had known Oz was here when he hadn't entered the room when she'd said it. Then she started to get angry.

**l**

The city was big. It reminded Faith of movies about the twenties. The buildings and streets had that kind of style. She'd even seen a couple of cars, although it was only the fact that they were on wheels and had no animals drawing them that gave it away. The fashions were different too and Faith tugged the collar of her new outfit self-consciously. It was a little too small for her, the way she liked it, but it meant that the collar was tight.

The people who lived there weren't happy. No-one smiled, no-one laughed... and no children played on the streets. There were signs that a fight had happened in the city, and recently. Oh, the blood had been wiped away, mostly, but nothing had been done yet about the buildings gutted by fire, the shattered brickwork, scorchmarks and bullet holes. The city hadn't gone down without a fight.

Business still thrived though, and the streets were crowded. They'd already seen three Ori patrols, all being given a wide berth by the locals and easy to avoid. No Priors yet, but they were headed into the centre of the city, working on the basis that the Stargate was usually either prominently displayed or tucked in a clearing. Since it was in a city, there were good odds it could be found in the centre. Probably right next to the two honking great big skyscrapers.

Faith glanced at Mallie, gawking like a tourist, and grinned as she looked at the two slayers on her other side. Kay was clearly enjoying the freedom of pants, unlike Nya, who was scuttling along with her head down, still walking as though she was wearing a dress. They'd had a helluva time convincing her into them. Faith just hoped that the shock didn't cause a setback. She'd been starting to come out of her shell at last. Ny was a good kid.. they all were. Except, you couldn't really call Kay a kid.

Faith knew who she'd left behind, and where. She even knew the address. She just had to get them through the Stargate.

**l**

Horribly hung-over, Jon groaned as an insistent ringing sliced through his head, leaving it throbbing painfully. He swallowed reflexively, trying to moisten his mouth and throat before he cracked an eyelid. Light stabbed into his skull and he squeezed the eyelid shut again, groaning. Even that was too loud, and the reverberations left him queasy. How much had he drunk last night? At least the rush of copper-flavoured saliva meant that his mouth wasn't dry any more, he thought as his phone continued to ring shrilly. What time was it?

Opening his eyes again to check was a mistake that sent him staggering to the bathroom to throw up. Between bouts of worship to the porcelain god, Jon's memory decided to work again, providing him with a full replay of yesterday's events, from the party on Argos, through the briefing that had followed, right up until just after Oz staggered out to his waiting cab, when Jon had decided that opening a second bottle of whiskey was a good idea.

He groaned, and threw up again.

**l**

Tomin was trying to teach Chaia some of the basic lessons of the Book of Origin while Praemas gave his own interpretation to each of the tales. Was it any wonder that Chaia didn't want to listen? Giving up, Tomin coaxed her out from under the table and set her to copying out her alphabet. He had just got her settled when the door to her quarters opened and Adria walked in. Chaia ran, slamming her bathroom door behind her and Tomin genuflected before the Orici.

"I see the brat still has no manners," she commented, ignoring him. "Praemas. I have need of you."

She swept out of the room, Praemas following close on her heels and Tomin breathed a sigh of relief. He just hoped that the Orici kept Praemas busy for a while!

**l**

"So, we're all agreed?" said Jool, looking at her two teammates sitting opposite her. "When Jon gets here we act natural and don't bring up last night unless he mentions it first."

"Yeah..." Andrew agreed reluctantly as Oz nodded.

"Okay," she said, glancing at her watch. "It's gone ten o'clock so he should be..." Hurriedly she changed the subject as the handle to the door to her office lowered, "So what's the weather like up top?" she asked loudly as the door opened and General Landry strode into the room.

"You'll have a chance to find out," he told her. "Captain O'Neil hasn't reported for duty and he's not answering his phone. I want you to check out his house."

"Yes, sir!" Andrew replied eagerly, shooting up out his chair and saluting the General.

"I'll drive," said Oz as Jool brightened hopefully.

**l**

She'd known things were going too well. First they'd sneaked past the Ori ship orbiting the planet, then they'd landed without crashing into anything or dying (the tree didn't count). They'd even managed to steal some clothes without getting caught. But could they find the Stargate? Hell no!

Faith's feet hurt. They'd been past that bar four times already. She was hungry, she was thirsty and she wanted a cigarette. Now. Unfortunately, tobacco wasn't something Langara seemed to have and she really didn't want to stand out.

Fuck it, she decided, catching sight of a few shabby men huddled around a fire conveniently located near an alleyway. She could light a cigarette from the fire and then duck down the alley to smoke it out of sight. Smiling in anticipation, Faith slipped her hand into her pocket.

Her smile fell away. Frowning, she pulled her hand out of her pocket and checked the other one. Still empty. Wait... different pants. Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, Faith rooted through her bag.

"What's wrong?" asked Mallie.

"I can't find my cigarettes," Faith told her, growing increasingly desperate. "Someone's nicked my cigarettes!"

"Faith," Kay hissed a warning as people began to stare. "We're attracting attention."

Still digging through her bag, Faith followed the others as they began to move again. Where the fuck were her cigarettes!

**l**

"He was pretty wasted when I left him last night," Oz told his teammates as they waited on Jon's doorstep for signs of life inside. "But he was planning to go to bed."

"He's not answering," said Jool, pulling back her foot to break the door down.

"Wait!" Oz stopped her. "He's inside."

"You're sure?" asked Andrew as Jool settled for pounding on the door with her fist instead.

"He hasn't gone out this way," Oz told him, tapping his nose.

Jool pounded on the door some more. "Captain!" she yelled. "I know you're in there! Don't make me break the door down!"

"Alright, already!" a voice cried on the other side of the door.

The unmistakable sounds of a door unlocking reached their ears and the door swung open to reveal Captain Jonathon O'Neil in all his glory. Well, not quite _all_ his glory. Wearing boxers and one sock he stood swaying in the doorway, his eyes bloodshot and a greenish cast to his complexion. Jool's stomach lurched as her worst fears came true and she realised that, even knowing he had the mind of a fifty-year-old trapped in the body of a teenager and had only been alive for three years, she was still attracted to him. Even when he looked like crap. What kind of pervert was she?

"What?" he croaked grouchily as she hastily averted her eyes from his bare chest.

"Oh my God," said Andrew. "This is so cool!"

"Aw, for cryin' out loud!" groaned Jon as Andrew started to hyperventilate.

"Have you got a paper bag?" Jool asked him.

"Think I've got a plastic one somewhere," Jon said shuffling back into his apartment.

"That'll do," she said, helping Andrew inside.

"We can stick it over his head and hope he goes away," suggested Jon as Jool looked around the cluttered living room with disapproval.

Empty bottles of alcohol littered every surface, and the floor. Clothes lay strewn in a trail towards the bedroom and the TV was still on. Handing her the bag, Jon turned it off with a wince.

"Thanks," she said and helped Andrew fit it to his face. "You know what to do?" Andrew nodded, the bag inflating and deflating as he breathed and, one patient settled, Jool turned to the other. "You should be in bed," she told Jon.

"I was," Jon replied pointedly, holding on to his aching head.

"Off you go," she said firmly. "I'll bring you some water. Where do you keep your painkillers?"

"Bathroom," Jon told her, feeling too ill to argue with her.

"Oz, can you find the phone?" asked Jool, opening cupboards to find the glasses as Jon headed back to bed.

He started hunting while she poured Jon a glass of water and disappeared into the bathroom to find painkillers. A gruesome sight greeted her. Someone was going to have to clean the toilet. Hurriedly finding some paracetamol, she practically ran out of the door into fresher air.

"Phone," said Oz, handing it to her.

"Thanks," she said, passing him the painkillers. "Can you give Jon those and the water please? And find a bucket or bowl or something for him?" Oz nodded, disappearing, and Jool called the General, digging a rubbish bag out from under the sink and starting to clear away bottles as she waited for him to pick up.

"Landry," he was brusque when he did.

"Hi," she said and winced. Wrong thing to say. "It's," _Don't say me!_ "Uh...Doctor Wilson, sir."

"What's going on?" Landry wanted to know.

"If I told you he had food poisoning, would you believe me?" Jool asked, pouring the remnants of a bottle of whiskey down the sink.

"What's really going on, Doctor?" General Landry asked suspiciously.

"Alcohol poisoning, sir," Jool told him. She sighed as she looked around the living room, "Apparently he went on quite a bender last night."

"I see," said General Landry. He was silent for a moment before he continued, "I suppose in that case I'd better give the rest of you the day off. You'd better note it in his file as food poisoning. And Doctor?"

"Yes, sir?" Jool stopped clearing bottles for a moment.

"I expect him to be fit for duty tomorrow, do you understand me?" General Landry ordered.

"Yes, sir," said Jool.

She hung up when he did, placing the phone on the side. Looking up, she noticed that Andrew had stopped hyperventilating. He was just about to sit down when she handed him the binbag.

"Why me?" he whined.

"You could always clean the toilet instead," Jool suggested. Andrew stuffed two beer bottles in the bag and she grinned as she opened the cupboard under the sink. "On second thought," she said, rooting around the contents. "I'll clean up in here if you go to the shop. We need bleach, gloves, a scrubbing brush, sponges..." She continued opening cupboards, "Bread, eggs, milk..." Catching Andrew's eye, she blushed slightly, "I'll write a list."

"Good idea," said Andrew.

**l**

Even when they were safely back at the ship, eating lunch, Faith was still fretting about her cigarettes. Not only was she now more desperate for one than she had ever been, but she was also afraid that they would be recognised as having come from Earth. She just had to hope that anyone who found them wouldn't recognise what they were. It was highly unlikely that they would.

Cigarettes weren't her only problem. They still hadn't found the Stargate although they'd trudged down just about every street in the city. This close to the city, it was only a matter of time before the tel'tak was discovered. Whistler had said she was behind schedule. Somehow she had to stop Adria from getting to Earth...

"What now?" Mallie asked and Faith focussed on her with an effort. It was a good question.

"We empty out the ship," Faith said eventually. "Everything we can carry. And we stash in the woods on the other side of the city."

"Everything?" whined Mallie.

"Everything," Faith said firmly.

"What about the Stargate?" asked Nya.

"Good question," said Faith. "I want to check out those two skyscrapers. They're big enough to hold it."

"So we split up?" Kay suggested.

Faith frowned. She really didn't want to split them up but they would get more ground covered separately. "Okay," she agreed finally. "Me and Ny'll check out the skyscrapers."

"Where will we meet up?" asked Kay.

"We'll help take a load over," Faith told her. "Meet back there when we're done."

"We should get rooms while we're in the city," said Nya. She blushed faintly as everyone looked at her in surprise. "In case the tel'tak is found. We don't know how long we are likely to be here."

Three sentences in one go? Faith took it back, pants were _improving_ Nya!

"I don't recognise the coins they use, but they seem to have a bartering system as well," Kay told Faith, impressing her with her knowledge although Faith didn't show it. "I'll find some things you can trade."

"Let's pack," said Faith.

**l**

Hidden underground, the leader of the Langaran Resistance turned a small object over in his hands. Jem had been above ground again, pickpocketing even though he was fully aware of the need for them to avoid attracting the attention of the Ori. Having stolen something he'd never seen before, he'd brought it to his leader, hoping he would know what it was. Jonas did. It was the most welcome sight he'd seen since the Ori had invaded, turning his home planet into their own personal weapons factory.

"Who did you get this from?" he asked urgently, getting up from his seat to pace his small office.

Jen frowned as he watched Jonas. Sensing that it was important, he struggled to remember all of the details.

"A dark-haired woman with three others," he told Jonas. "The other old one had short hair, about so long," he brought his hand to just below his ear. "There were two younger ones. The blonde was pretty."

"All women?" Jonas asked with some surprise. The SGC hadn't had an all-women team when he had been a member, but it was always possible that they had created one since he'd returned home.

"Yes," Jem confirmed. He frowned, "They all had the same bag."

Definitely the SGC. Relief coursed through Jonas, tempered by caution. The war wasn't won yet, they hadn't even made contact with the team. But just knowing that Earth had sent a team to investigate Langara's silence made him feel better. How had they got here?

"Would you recognise them again?" he asked Jem, praying that the answer would be yes.

"Sure," Jem said with a shrug.

"Good," said Jonas. "I need you to find them. Follow them, find out where they go and report back to me."

"Will do!" Jem said cheerfully, always happy to have an excuse to go above ground.

Staring at the packet of cigarettes in his hand as Jem left the room, Jonas sat back down behind his desk. Four women? And one of them was a smoker. The one with short hair... could it be Sam? She'd hadn't had her own team the last time he'd spoken to her, but it had been awhile.

He set the packet to one side and pulled the papers in front of him, trying to work. It was no good. His mind was filled with memories of his time on Earth and thoughts of the team somewhere in the city above him. He knew himself well enough to know that he wouldn't get any work done until he allowed the thoughts their course. He settled back in his chair and almost immediately there was a knock on his office door.

"Come in!" he called. Maybe he would get some work done after all.

A strawberry blonde woman stuck her head around the door and then the rest of her lithe young body followed. Jonas grinned at her.

"Kayliss..." he greeted her.

"Hello Jonas," Kayliss smiled diffidently at him, tucking an errant wisp on shoulder-length hair behind her ear. "We've managed to decode the burst of transmission between the Lithair Building and the Ori ship that we intercepted this morning," she handed him the sheaf of papers she carried. "I thought you'd want to see it straight away."

Jonas speed-read his way through the report, learning that the Ori ship had detected a hyperspace window in Langaran space but had been unable to track a ship. They had requested that the forces on the ground initiate a thorough search. The Priors in the Lithair Building had demanded, and been given, additional troops. Looking up, he saw that Kayliss was staring curiously at the packet of cigarettes on his desk.

"They're cigarettes," he told her. "From Earth."

"From Earth?" asked Kayliss. "Then...? They're really here?" She looked around the room as though she expected to find them there.

"Somewhere," said Jonas. "Jem's following them."

"Jem?" Kayliss snorted in disgust. "He'll probably get distracted by a fat merchant with an even fatter purse."

"Those purses help put food on the table," Jonas reminded her.

"I know," Kayliss said apologetically. "It's just... He's hardly reliable!"

"He is when it counts," Jonas told her. "He's sixteen. Remember what that feels like? He shouldn't even be fighting the Ori."

"Try telling him that!" said Kayliss, remembering the one and only time she had suggested to Jem that he was too young to be a member of the Resistance. She still had the scar.

"I have," Jonas sighed, surprising her. "Repeatedly. He keeps coming back. I think we're the closest thing he's ever had to a family."

"Maybe it's because we feed him?" Kayliss suggested with a mischievous smile.

**l**

"All I was did was make one little comment about Captain O'Neil's sexual prowess and she told me I should wipe my mouth out with soap!" Vala said indignantly to Teal'c over lunch. Having already exhausted the subject with Daniel and Sam, she'd pounced on fresh blood when she saw him waiting patiently in line to be served.

"Indeed?" asked Teal'c, raising an eyebrow.

"And she told me I should be ashamed of myself!" Vala informed him. "We've had far worse conversations in the past," she complained.

"Perhaps she was preoccupied with other matters?" Teal'c suggested.

"Then why take it out on me?" demanded Vala. "I made one comment, _one_, Muscles! And she jumped all over me."

"Doctor Wilson attacked you?" asked Teal'c, one eyebrow climbing high. And he missed it?

"No, there's something else going on here, Muscles," said Vala, more to herself than him. She seemed unharmed. "And I intend to find out what."

Teal'c applied himself assiduously to his trayful of food. Vala hesitated for a moment before bringing up another subject. No doubt she believed that she did so in an off-hand manner, but her interest could not have been more evident.

"What's a slayer?" she asked him. Teal'c nearly choked on his mouthful of apple. Swallowing, he carefully set the apple down.

"I could not say," he said honestly.

"You know what I think, Muscles?" Vala asked rhetorically. "I think it's got something to do with how Jool could tell that Oz was outside this room with her back to the door. And with how she could carry Andrew all the way to the infirmary without breaking a sweat."

"I suggest you consult Daniel Jackson," recommended Teal'c.

"I tried that," Vala told him with a huffy sigh.

"And?" Teal'c asked.

"He keeps changing the subject," said Vala. "If she thinks I'm going to apologise then she can think again! Where is she anyway?"

"I believe General Landry gave SG-13 the day off," Teal'c informed her, inclining his head slightly.

"Why didn't we get the day off?" Vala took umbrage. "We were traumatised too!"

**l**

They were still there when he woke up. Jon had been hoping they'd have the decency to let themselves out while he was asleep, but no. Andrew and Oz were sprawled on his sofa, watching his Simpsons DVDs, while the Doc cleaned his kitchen.

"Don't you people have jobs?" he complained loudly.

"So have you," Oz said calmly.

"General Landry gave us the day off," Andrew told him, the only one to bother looking up. "You too."

"You've got homes," said Jon. "Go there."

"I haven't," the Doc pointed out.

"Doesn't mean you can move into mine," Jon told her bluntly and she flushed. Dammit! "Doc..."

"You had something growing in your fridge," she said, her head bent as she stripped off the yellow gloves she was wearing. "Quite a few things, actually. I got rid of them for you. Hungry?"

"Not really," said Jon as she looked up at his t-shirt. "Thanks."

"Sure?" she pressed. "I could make you some toast."

"I'm fine," Jon told her, gingerly trying sitting for a change. His stomach didn't protest too much and his headache had receded to a dull roar.

Even then she didn't leave him alone, pressing more water and painkillers on him before donning her rubber gloves again and attacking his oven. Jon ignored them all, focussing on the episode playing on the TV. He'd seen it before.

Andrew leaned forward eagerly, "What's it like being a clone?"

"Peachy," Jon told him sarcastically, staring fixedly at the widescreen TV.

"Have you ever-?"

"Andrew," interrupted Oz. "Shut up."

**l**

The skyscrapers were a bust. A closer inspection had shown that one of them was the government's equivalent to the senate and that the other was now the Ori HQ. It was possible that the 'Gate was in there, but Faith didn't fancy walking up and asking to have a look around, especially when her slay-dar was telling her there were Prior's in there. They had managed to explore enough of the other skyscraper before they were found and thrown out to know that the Stargate wasn't there, and that Langara's government had been royally screwed by the Ori.

They'd had better luck finding somewhere to stay, managing to get two rooms in a small hotel on the outskirts of the city. Yeah, it was filthy, but the manager hadn't asked any questions. After a short bartering session, they were on their way to meet Mallie and Kay. They had to dodge an Ori patrol on the way, but they made it back without any problems. Except one. The others weren't back yet.

A glance around their surroundings was enough to convince Faith that they were alone but she was still uneasy. She really didn't want to be seen loitering this close to where they were stashing their stuff. Reaching a decision, she cupped her hands into a foothold and wedged her shoulder against a convenient tree.

"Up you go," she said to Nya.

"Up... there?" Nya looked horrified, pointing up at the tree.

"Yup," said Faith. "Trust me, no-one ever looks up and this way we get to scare the crap out of Mallie and Kay. Think of it as part of your training," she added when Nya still hesitated.

Reluctantly, Nya placed her foot in Faith's hands and Faith boosted her up the tree. She scrambled for handholds as Faith easily followed her up, settling them both on a thick branch, their feet dangling high in the air.

They had barely got comfortable when Faith spotted a skulking figure creeping through the forest towards him. Thankfully, she saw him before Nya did, and clapped a silencing hand over the other slayer's mouth when she gasped. Closer and closer he crept, sneaking through the undergrowth right up to the large bush they were hiding their stuff in. Faith found herself silently praying that he didn't take it into his head to dive into it.

Covered in dirt and grime, his clothes were one step up from rags. He couldn't have been more than fifteen however and Faith wondered just why he was following them as he stepped around the bush, frowning as he looked about him. He didn't look up though, and soon melted back into the forest. When she was convinced he was out of earshot, Faith released Nya.

"Do you think he was following us?" worried Nya.

"I don't care if he wasn't," Faith told her. "We gotta move our stuff."

"Again?" Nya whined good-naturedly as Faith jumped out of the tree.

**l**

Seven and a bit episodes of the Simpsons and three and a quarter gruelling hours of silence later, Jon caved. Turning the TV off, he turned to his team.

"What do you people want from me?" he demanded to know.

"Nothing," Andrew said meekly, his eyes hurt.

"We just want to know you're okay," the Doc told him gently.

"I'm fine!" he shouted and winced as his head reminded him that he was supposed to have a hangover with a stab of pain. "I've been fine for the last three hours."

"We're worried about you, dude," said Oz.

"Yah, right," scoffed Jon. "Andrew can barely look at me without hyperventilating and the Doc hasn't bothered to once!"

"That doesn't mean we don't care!" she snapped and flushed. She pushed past her embarrassment, "Oz's right, we're your friends. More than that, we're a _team_. We might not be SG-1-" Jon snorted. "We might not be them," she continued pointedly. "But we're not half bad, even if I do say so myself."

"We're not gonna go away," Oz told him. "You don't have to talk, we're not gonna make you. But we're here for you."

"I wish you'd be here for me somewhere else," Jon grumbled, but it was half-hearted and they knew it. He switched the TV back on.

**l**

After a fun-filled afternoon of hauling their belongings around the woods, the four slayers ate their evening meal on their way back to their lodgings. Once there, they all piled into Nya and Kay's room, talking quietly amongst themselves while Faith worked on her rectangles of card until there wasn't enough light to see. Faith stretched, and carefully put away the cards.

"I'm turning in," she announced.

"Already?" asked Mallie, screwing up her face at the thought.

"I wanna get up early to check out the Ori skyscraper," Faith told her. "You'd better do the same if you wanna come with."

"I'm coming... I'm coming," Mallie said hurriedly, pushing herself up off Nya's bed.

"Good night," Nya wished them as they left.

"Night!" Mallie called back.

**l**

As soon as the sun set, Jool started to get restless. Unfortunately there was nothing left to clean except Jon's bedroom and she really didn't want to go in there. Getting up from the sofa, she paced back and forth like a caged animal. Finally, just when she could bear it no more, Jon looked up.

"Let's go patrolling," he suggested. "I feel like hitting something."

Jool couldn't agree more, but there was one problem. "We'll have to swing by the mountain to pick up some weapons."

"I've got some," Andrew piped up eagerly. "Ooh! Can we go back to Finnegan's?"

"It's across the other side of town!" Jon objected. Andrew pouted and he sighed, "Sure."

"You just want to see if the bartender'll wet himself again," Jool accused, risking a glance at him. He grinned at her and she quickly looked away, feeling a blush burn her cheeks.

"It's entertaining!" he insisted, but there was no trace of a smile in his voice.

**l**

Adria stared out of the large window at the city at her feet. Langara was to be the invasion force's crowning jewel. A shining example of all that Origin could bring to a world. Its manufacturing capabilities meant that it could produce replacement weapons in numbers far in excess of predictions made on Celestis. The fleet's one scientifically-inclined Prior was reporting intriguing results with the strange naquada-like metal that abounded here. And somewhere down there was Faith.

Adria wondered if she'd found the slayer who was hiding there yet.

**l**

The bartender didn't wet himself, but he did have some interesting information about a virgin sacrifice that was supposed to happen that night. They left him mostly undamaged, cleaning up the gooey remains of a former customer who clearly hadn't heard that there was a slayer in town, while they piled out of the bar and into Jon's truck. Oz called shotgun and spent the trip with the window wound right down, enjoying the breeze while Jon drove them to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. Andrew loudly complained about being cold.

At the warehouse, they split into two groups, Oz and Andrew taking the back and Jon and Jool taking the front. A moment's observation was enough to see that the demons hadn't bothered to post guards at the front entrance but they waited for the agreed five minutes to give the others time to move into position. Jool couldn't help glancing at Jon while they waited.

"So..." he said eventually, after he caught her peeking at him.

"How're you doing?" Jool jumped into the conversational breach.

"Good," he told her. "Better."

"Good," said Jool.

"You?" he asked after an awkward pause.

"I'm good," she told him.

"That's good!" he said.

They fell silent, each wondering how to broach the subject they both desperately wanted to talk to the other about and then coming to their separate conclusions that there wasn't enough time. Neither of them knew what they wanted to say, anyway.

"Lets go," said Jon when the five minutes were up and they headed towards the warehouse.

Jool hefted Andrew's second best sword (his best was apparently an exact replica from Highlander and not for touching) and kicked the door down. No-one came running, which was probably a sign that the ritual had already started. Cautiously, they advanced into the building. Before long, a droning noise reached their ears.

"You hear that?" Jon whispered.

"Chanting," the Doc whispered back.

Where were Andrew and Oz? They didn't meet up with them before they entered the main warehouse and couldn't see them as they crouched behind some discarded crates, watching a circle of robed demons chanting around a bound and gagged teenage boy. Jon felt a moment's pity for the poor virgin kid but forced himself to focus on the job at hand. There were seven antlered demons dripping mucus on the floor to deal with. He really hoped the others hadn't run into any trouble.

"Follow my lead," he told the Doc in a whisper before he raised his voice to address the demons. "Step away from the virgin! We've got you surrounded. I mean it!"

The Doc rolled her eyes at him as the chanting faltered and picked up again. "My turn to lead," she told him, and charged at the demons.

"Dammit!" Jon swore, standing and firing the crossbow Andrew had given him at the nearest demon.

He missed, hitting the demon on its left in the thigh. The demon roared in pain, clutching its thigh and the Doc was there, swinging her sword in a silver arc and slicing through its neck. The meeting broke up when the antlered head bounced on the floor and Jon struggled to reload the unfamiliar weapon as the demons turned on the Doc.

She disappeared under a pile of demons and Jon turned his crossbow on one of the two demons charging at him, hitting it in the forehead. Its eyes crossed and it fell to the ground. That left him with one still running towards him and no sign of the Doc. He swore again when he fumbled with the crossbow bolt, dropping it.

A loud snarl came from the shadows and a large werewolf barrelled into the heap of demons on top of the Doc, scattering them. Droplets of mucus flew in every direction. Jon abandoned the crossbow as the demon reached him and reached for his gun, even though he knew it wouldn't do him any good. Backing up, he fired several rounds into the demon's head. They didn't faze it in the slightest. In fact it grinned. Jon gulped. He only had holy water and a stake to fall back on.

"Catch!" called the Doc, throwing her sword through the air.

Jon ducked out of its path and it landed blade down beside him, the tip digging into the wooden floor so that it stood upright. He grabbed it as she began bludgeoning her opponent into submission with her fist, parrying the demon's clumsy grab. The sword bit into the demon's arm and mucus began to flow from the wound.

"Ew!" he commented.

Oz was bouncing from demon to demon, dragging one along for the ride as his personal chewtoy. The Doc had battered the demon in front of her to his knees and was grabbing hold of his antlers... Jon looked away as she wrenched its head from its shoulders. He was carving his demon into ribbons and, he realised as he saw one of the demons Oz had knocked over getting to its feet only to fall back down with a crossbow bolt sticking out of its head, Andrew was pulling his weight too. The kid was a better shot with a crossbow then he was with a gun! And clearly the head was the way to go.

Jon attacked, concentrating on the demon's head. Finding an opening, he swung the sword at the demon's neck, only for it to lodge halfway through. Pulling it out, he was sprayed in the face with mucus but still pulled back the sword for another attempt. He missed as the demon fell to the ground. Looking around for another target, he realised that there weren't any left. Oz and the Doc were mopping up the last of the demons. Andrew was letting the boy go.

"Tell me we brought a towel," he groused.

"Sorry," the Doc shrugged.

"I'm not a virgin!" the boy insisted loudly as Andrew removed his gag. "I'm not!"

Eight dead demons, a werewolf and a super-strong hot woman and _that_ was what he focussed on? "Yah," said Jon. "Sure. "You betcha."

The ungrateful brat ran as soon as Andrew had untied him, leaving them with the clean-up. Jon wondered just how you got rid of demon bodies. Oz appeared from behind a stack of crates, pulling his t-shirt down over his head. He spat on the floor.

"Taste worse than they look," he explained when Jon stared at him in surprise.

"Well that was fun," said the Doc, looking around at the carnage they had created with satisfaction. "Cemeteries next?"

**l**

It took ages for Faith to fall asleep. Mallie snored, and she was a restless sleeper, slaying her sheets in her sleep. It felt like she'd only just fallen asleep when a pair of hands grabbed her shoulder and mouth, jerking her awake.

Faith exploded up out of bed, reaching for her attacker. In the dim light from the small windows, she could see just enough to realise that her assailant was female and she checked herself before she touched her, not wanting to harm Mallie, Kay or Nya.

Her attacker had no such qualms, grabbing Faith's arm and using her arrested momentum to pull her off-balance and head-first into the sturdy brick wall. Faith staggered back, head reeling, and ducked under the woman's reaching grasp. She kicked her attacker in the back of the knee and then elbowed the back of her head, sending her sprawling across Faith's bed. She rolled off it on the other side and back onto her feet.

They lunged for each other at the same time and landed in a heap on the bed. Grappling with her, Faith struggled to pin her down. With one arm, she fumbled under the bed for her bag, searching for the torch she knew was in there. The bitch used her motion to topple them both to the floor, pinning Faith beneath her, but at least Faith was closer to her bag.

"Whazzat?" Mallie called sleepily, woken by the noise.

Faith's fingers closed around the military-issue torch at last, and she hit the woman on top of her around the side of the head, knocking her to the floor.

"Faith?" Mallie cried, alarmed now.

The woman picked herself up off the floor, ran to the window and was gone. Faith was about to fling herself out of the window after her, never mind that they were three stories above a stone sidewalk, when Mallie called her name again. She contented herself with hanging out of the window as below, the woman ran across the street and disappeared down a dark alleyway.

"Are you alright?" Mallie asked from behind Faith, concern threading through her voice.

"Five by five," Faith replied, turning away from the window and throwing herself down on her bed.

"Should we not wake the others?" Mallie asked, falling back on her old speech patterns in her distress.

"Do what you like," Faith mumbled into her pillow. "'M goin' back t'sleep."

**l**

Arriving back at the SGC in the early hours of the morning, covered in mucus and ash, Jool took a slight detour past Vala's door, on the off-chance that she was still up. Her light wasn't on and Jool held her breath as she listened for sounds coming from behind the closed door. Apparently, Vala snored.

Oh well, she thought, heading towards her own room. She could apologise for over-reacting in the morning. Right now, she desperately wanted food, a shower and her bed, in that order. She'd have to settle for the shower first, food second though, she thought with a rueful look down at herself. She wasn't fit to be seen in public!

**l**

Nya woke when the thin moon slipped beneath the horizon, every nerve in her body crying out that now was the time to hunt. Why had she woken so early? Memory returned and with it the knowledge that they were going to check out the second 'skyscraper' before the sun rose. She could hear Kay getting up and quickly screwed her eyes shut as light flooded the room.

"Sorry," Kay apologised.

Other than that, they dressed, gathered up their belongings and tiptoed across the landing in perfect silence. Kay tapped quietly on the door. There was no answer. Frowning, Kay dug in her bag for the spare key Faith had given her last night, unlocking the door and pushing it open.

Twin snores greeted them, the two occupants fast asleep. Faith lay on her front, her arms and legs akimbo and her head stuffed between two pillows while Mallie was sprawled in a chair by the window, her head tipped far back and her long blonde hair brushing the floor.

"Psst!" Kay hissed and Faith stirred, sticking her head further between the pillows.

"Wake up!" Nya added in a whisper.

Faith's rumpled head appeared and she focussed blearily on them.

"Mallie..." she croaked, throwing a pillow at the blonde. "Time to get up."

"Wha?" Mallie jerked her head up with a snort and looked sleepily embarrassed when she saw Nya and Kay staring curiously at her.

"Why are you sleeping in a chair?" Nya asked her curiously.

"Because _someone_ was attacked in her bed last night, and rather than wake you up, went straight back to sleep," Mallie justified her actions.

"What?" exclaimed Nya and Kay at the same time.

"Shh!" Faith scolded them.

With a superhuman effort, both Kay and Nya somehow managed to contain their frantic questions while Mallie and Faith dressed and grabbed their bags. Nya opened her mouth as they headed towards the door but Faith glared at her until she shut it again. Together, they crept down two flights of stairs and out of the back door, into the dark night. Faith shut the door behind them.

"Okay," she said to Nya and Kay in a low voice. "_Now_ you can ask what the fuck happened. Quietly!" she warned when they both opened their mouths.

They exchanged a glance and it was Kay who asked, "What happened?" with a rueful shrug.

"All I know is I finally got to sleep and someone grabbed me," Faith told them as they made their way through the deserted streets.

"What did you do?" Nya asked, her eyes wide.

"Grabbed 'em back," Faith told her matter-of-factly. "We wrestled for a bit and then Mallie woke up and they took off like a bat out of hell.

"What's a bat? Kay asked and then dismissed her own question impatiently. "Never mind. What did they want?"

"I forgot to ask," Faith said sarcastically.

"Who do you think they were?" Mallie asked eagerly.

"Don't know," Faith told her shortly.

"But you fought them," Nya said quietly. "Surely you must have some idea. Were they big or small? Male or female?"

"Woman," Faith told them. "'Bout so high. Shoulder-length hair. Slayer." She really should have known better than to tell them that now, she thought as they all started talking at the same time. She blamed it on caffeine deprivation. "Shut the fuck up!" she growled over the top of them and they fell silent. "We still don't know what side she's on."

"She might not be on any side," Mallie pointed out reasonably.

"Which was why she attacked Faith while she slept," Kay remarked acerbically.

"I just meant that she might not have known what she was doing," Mallie defended hotly. "Just because she attacked Faith doesn't mean she's bad."

"It doesn't make her good either," Kay bit back. "She could be working for Adria. Whistler said that we were running behind schedule and the Ori have been here a while."

"When did he say that?" Nya asked curiously.

"If you can't be fucking quiet," Faith told them in authoritarian tones. "Go back!"

That managed to shut them up, although Faith knew that the grilling they'd give her later would make the Spanish Inquisition look like a bunch of hippies. They were maybe halfway to the skyscrapers when Faith became aware that they were being followed. She hesitated, trying to pinpoint the source of the sensation and Kay frowned.

"Faith..." she said quietly.

"I know," replied Faith, just as quietly.

"What?" Mallie whispered loudly.

"We're being followed," Kay explained while Faith glared.

"What do we do?" asked Nya, panicked, but still whispering.

"Time to shake things up a bit," Faith told them as they entered a small courtyard with plenty of places to hide. "Scatter."

Scatter they did, each finding her own hiding place. Faith was amused to see that Nya went high. Her amusement vanished as she pulled her two zats out of her bag and settled herself into a comfortable position to wait.

She didn't have long to wait before eight people of wildly different appearances entered the courtyard. Faith recognised the teenager who had been following Nya and her in the lead and guessed that the woman was the slayer she had fought earlier. She was the right height and build, and definitely good-looking enough to be a slayer, even with her hair scraped back into a short ponytail. The six men with them came in all shapes and sizes and had only one thing in common, they were all packing.

The boy darted forward to the only exit out of the courtyard and peered around the corner. He stiffened and turned back to his friends. "They're not there!" he hissed.

"What?" the largest man whispered loudly. "Don't be ridiculous. Where else can they be?"

"There's only one way out of here," the boy told him, rejoining the group.

"So, logically, they're still here," the woman worked out.

"Where?" said another one of the men, his head swivelling round. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"Right here," Faith told them, stepping out of her hiding place. She kept her zats activated but pointing at the floor. "Eight against four? Not very good odds," she remarked as the others revealed themselves, the boy jumping as Nya landed beside him. "Shoulda brought more men."

The largest man bristled, swinging his gun up to aim it at her. Kay zatted him before he got the chance.

"I wouldn't recommend it," she coldly advised the other men as they reached for their weapons.

"Stand down!" the woman ordered, making a sharp hand gesture.

The men backed off, much to Faith's disappointment. The boy took a step sideways, and then a backwards one, clearly hoping to escape, but Nya grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and held him firmly. The woman took one step towards Faith and Mallie, Kay and Nya all aimed a zat at her. In Mallie's case, she pointed both of hers at the woman.

"You are the leader of your team?" the woman asked Faith, halting with her empty hands held out at her sides.

"Not that it's any a your business, but yeah!" Faith told her. "I guess."

"Are you or not?" the woman asked.

"She is," Mallie said loyally.

"What do you want?" demanded Faith.

"I have been instructed to ask you what channel 119 was predicting when you left your home planet," the woman told her.

"How the fuck should I know?" said Faith. "I didn't exactly have time to tune into the Weather Channel and.... wait."

Holy, fucking, shit, Faith thought as she stared at the now-smiling woman. There was someone on this planet who'd not only been to Earth for long enough to watch cable but who also knew what channel to tune into to find out the weather? What were the freakin' odds? Not good, she realised, ruthlessly subduing her surge of hope. They could still be walking into another, much bigger trap. But they desperately needed local help to locate the Stargate before they were discovered and someone who'd heard of the Weather Channel was their best bet so far.

Faith grinned at the woman, "Take me to your leader."

"I'm trying to," the woman grumbled.

Faith let that slide. The woman had had her plans turned on their head and was understandably pissed. She might give orders to these goons but clearly she took them from someone else and she'd have to explain how she'd been successfully ambushed to them.

She followed the woman back the way they'd come, Mallie, Kay and Nya running herd on the heavies. Kay slung the unconscious man over her shoulder rather than leave him there and Nya still had a tight hold on the teenager. Faith was impressed by how silent the natives were. They were clearly used to sneaking around.

"So what's your name?" she asked the woman as they turned left, down a different road.

"Kayliss," the woman said, keeping a wary eye out for anyone not with them.

"We've already got a Kay," Faith told her, pointing out Kay. "You'll have to be Liss. I'm Faith, that's Mallie, an' that's Nya."

"What?" Kayliss asked, confused as the other females in Faith's team acknowledged her.

"How're the dreams?" asked Faith.

"What dreams?" Kayliss bluffed, unnerved. How did Faith know about her dreams?

"You know," Faith said. "The ones about you fightin' Priors that started before you'd ever clapped eyes on 'em."

Shaken, Kayliss stopped walking as they reached a junction, staring at Faith. How could she know that?

"Left!" Jem called out from the back of the group.

Faith turned to him, "You know the way?"

"Better'n she does," Jem told her with a sniff. He used his cuff to wipe his nose.

"Send him up, Ny," Faith told the woman holding him.

The woman, Nya, Kayliss remembered, shoved Jem forward and he took off, sprinting away from the large group. He didn't get far before Faith, moving with supernatural speed, caught him.

"Nice try," she told him, giving him a little shake as she led him back. Kayliss gaped at her.

Was it possible that Faith was a hok'taur too? She looked at least as fast as Kayliss herself. But Jonas had told her that hok'taurs were rare, more myth than fact, although he'd once been able to see the future. What were the chances that the SGC employed one with Kayliss's speed and strength? Impossibly low. If Jonas knew of such a hok'taur he surely would have told her.

"Left, you said?" Faith said to Jem, holding him by the scruff of the neck.

He glared sullenly at her and she ignored him, leading the group left. Kayliss dropped back a pace, following her instead of leading, more important things on her mind. Escape wasn't one of them. She'd promised Jonas that she'd bring them back if they were from Earth and she'd do exactly that. Even if it meant arriving back a prisoner.

"Right," Jem grudgingly told Faith and they turned down a grimy alleyway. "Down."

"You gotta be kidding me," said Faith, staring at the manhole. "Why is it always sewers? If I let go of you, you gonna run?" she asked Jem, giving him another shake. He shook his head. "Good." Letting go of him, she dragged the manhole cover to one side.

"I'll go first," the blonde girl volunteered. "Make sure it isn't a trap."

"Knock yourself out," Faith told her, stepping back from the hole.

The girl jumped down and her voice soon floated up to them, "No-one here!"

"Okay, macho men! You next," ordered Faith.

The men looked at Kayliss and she nodded. One by one, they disappeared down into the sewer. Nya followed them and the woman called Kay passed the unconscious Gurlak down before she jumped. Faith looked pointedly at Jem and he lowered himself down into the sewer, leaving Kayliss alone in the alleyway with the Tau'ri woman.

"How did you know about my dreams?" Kayliss found herself asking before she could stop herself.

"We don't have time for the 'one girl' speech right now," Faith told her, frowning. "Let's just say you're not the only one who gets them. After you."

With one last curious look, Kayliss jumped. Alone, Faith looked around the alleyway to make sure no-one was watching and sighed as she stepped up to the hole.

"I just cleaned these boots," she grumbled to herself and stepped off the edge.

**l**

Jonas was trying to work. He wasn't getting much done. Every thirty seconds or so, his head would come up to look out of his open door into the deserted room beyond. Kayliss and Jem should be back by now. Remembering SG-1's propensity for getting into trouble, he worried that something might have gone wrong. He knew that both of them were perfectly capable of looking after themselves, each in their own way, but he couldn't help worrying. He worried about Jem because the boy was sixteen and would walk through fire if Jonas told him to. Kayliss he worried about for entirely different reasons.

Loud voices from the room outside broke into Jonas' thoughts and he looked up. Kayliss and Jem were back and they had four women with them. Jonas was up out of his chair and halfway to the door before he realised that something was terribly wrong. None of them were Sam, or anyone he recognised. Worse, two of the women were far too young to belong to the SGC. The youngest couldn't have been more than Jem's age. Jonas hung back in the doorway to his office, watching them as Kayliss argued with the long-haired older woman.

"I don't care," she was saying. "You're not taking a weapon in there and that's final."

"Look," the woman said. "We played nice and put our zats away when we got here, but you can have my knife when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Or when I stab you with it. Your choice."

"That won't be necessary," Jonas told her. She reminded him of Jack and he wondered if they really could be from Earth.

"You the weatherman?" the woman asked him and he felt a stab of hope.

"That depends," said Jonas. "Who're you?"

"Faith," she identified herself, which really didn't tell him anything. "Kay, Mallie, Nya," she jerked a thumb at each of the women in turn. "Who're you?"

"You don't recognise me?" Jonas asked, disappointed.

"Should I?" asked Faith.

Yes, and not only if she was from the SGC. Jonas wasn't vain, but he did know that any team heading to Langara would have been briefed on him. Similarly, his face was familiar enough to anyone living in Kelowna, and to a lesser extent, the two other nations of Langara, Terania and Andari, for Faith to have at least some idea of who he was. So if she wasn't Langaran, and she wasn't from Earth, where was she from? And how had she got here? With a packet of cigarettes!

"Not really," said Jonas. He pulled the packet out of his pocket, "I think these belong to you."

"My cigarettes!" Faith exclaimed, crossing the room to take them from him.

Kayliss followed closely behind her, keeping a wary eye on her, and the rest of the group trailed after them. Faith opened the packet and pulled a cigarette out with shaking hands. Sticking it between her lips, she looked up at him.

"Gotta light?" she mumbled around it.

"Uh..." said Jonas, thinking. "I've got some matches somewhere."

Entering his office, he rooted through the drawers of his desk as everyone filed into the room. Faith sat in one of the two chairs while she waited for him to find them and Kayliss promptly sat in the other. The woman Faith had called Kay shut the door behind them all and leaned against the wall beside it. Jonas noticed that Jem was still with them. Finding the matches, Jonas handed them over and watched Kayliss' horrified reaction when she saw Faith light the cigarette. Faith inhaled slowly, and sagged back in her chair, resting her head on the padded chair back.

"Sweet nicotine," she crooned to the ceiling.

This wasn't going at all like he'd planned! Jonas grinned, sitting down behind his desk and clasping his hands together as he eagerly leaned forward.

"So what are you doing in Kelowna?" he asked.

"Kelowna?" Faith's head snapped up so she could stare at him. "I thought this was Langara. Kay?"

"It is," the short-haired woman insisted at the same time Jonas said the same thing.

"You're currently under Kelowna, capital city of the nation of Kelowna," he explained.

"Your capital city is named after your country?" Faith asked him. "Bit boring, isn't it?"

"We like it," Jonas told her. "You didn't answer my question."

"Looking for the Stargate," Faith told him, puffing on her cigarette. "Big thing. Round. Dials other planets. Seen it?"

"Not since the Ori invaded," Jonas told her. "They moved it into the Lithair Building after we surrendered."

"Yeah," scoffed Faith, flicking ash into her palm. "'Cause you surrendered. That the skyscraper they've taken over?"

"Yeah," said Jonas. "Where did you park your ship?"

"'Bout half a mile due west of the city," Faith told him.

"Faith!" protested the blonde girl, Mallie.

Faith shrugged, "Won't do him much good. There's not enough fuel left in the tank to get to another 'Gate."

"Is it naquada-fuelled?" Jonas asked urgently. What he could do with just a gram of naquada! The Ori had closed the mines and confiscated all stockpiles of the metal.

"Uh..." said Faith, glancing at Kay.

"Yes," the older woman confirmed.

"How much is left?" asked Jonas.

"About a quarter of the tank," Kay told him.

"Kayliss," Jonas said, resisting the urge to rub his hands together as he turned to her.

"I'll put a team together," she said, rising.

"Actually," said Faith looking around for somewhere to stub out her cigarette. Jonas emptied his pens out of their pot and pushed it over. "Liss needs to stay."

"Liss?" Jonas asked curiously as Kayliss grimaced.

"Don't call me that," she told Faith, sitting back down. "Why?"

"I told you," Faith said. "We already got a Kay. As for why... We're taking a helluva lot on trust here. We already gave you our ship. How 'bout you give us something?"

"Like what?" Jonas asked her.

"How 'bout the blueprints for that Lithair Building?" said Faith. "That'll do for a start."

Jonas pulled the blueprints out of his drawer in reply, laying them down between them on his desktop.

"Okay," said Faith. "You been to Earth, right?"

"Yeah," Jonas admitted, still not ready to trust her but willing to play this out and hope he hadn't miscalculated. "Have you?"

"Born in Boston, baby," she told him with a wink. "Ever hear a vampires?"

"Sure," said Jonas. "Fictional creatures-"

"Bzzt! Wrong!" Faith interrupted. "Vampires are real."

"Can you prove it?" Jonas asked curiously.

"Haven't seen any here," Faith said seriously. "I'd say sorry if it wasn't a good thing."

"Okay..." Jonas said slowly. "Say I believe you. What have vampires on Earth got to do with Kayliss?"

"Is she the-?" the blonde girl stared to ask.

"Pretty sure," Faith interrupted her, glaring. The blonde girl subsided and Faith turned back to Jonas.

"See, way back when," she said. "Before humans evolved, demons lived on Earth. It was what they called home. Then humans evolved and when the last true demon left this plane of existence, it mixed its blood with a human's, making the first vampire. So a bunch of men chained a girl to a floor and forced a demon into her. They called her the Slayer and it was her job to fight vampires. When she died, the next girl was called, and the next, and the next...

"Skip forward a couple of thousand years or so and you've got this girl who's a bit stubborner than most and who refuses to stay dead when she's killed. This causes a bit of a problem because now there's two slayers. An uber-baddy called The First Evil decides to take advantage of it and starts killing off potential slayers all over the Earth. The only way to beat her and her army of fugly-ass uber-vamps is to activate every potential slayer. Fortunately the girl's best friend is a witch and can do that. Unfortunately, it looks like Earth wasn't the only planet that had potentials. That's what it's got to do with Liss."

"Jonas?" Kayliss turned to him for reassurance, too disturbed by Faith's tale to complain about her nickname. Jonas was frowning as he stared into space. "Jonas?"

"_One girl in all the world..."_ he mumbled to himself.

"What?" said Kayliss. One girl?

"You've already heard the recruitment speech," Faith smiled at Jonas and he blinked as he looked at her. Kayliss scowled at her. "Needs updating."

"I thought it was just a legend," Jonas told her.

"No-one tell you legends are usually based on facts?" asked Faith.

"No, I know that," said Jonas. "I just didn't think that one was."

"You're not telling me it's true?" Kayliss asked disbelievingly. "I don't believe it!"

"Believe it," Kay told her.

"_With the strength and skill to fight the demons_," Jonas quoted. "You've got that Kayliss."

"Plus, super-healing, freaky dreams and the ability to sense Priors before you can smell 'em coming," added Faith.

"So the SGC put a team of slayers together to track down the slayers on other worlds?" asked Jonas. "How do you find them?"

"Not exactly," said Faith. "I told you about the freaky dreams, right?"

"Kayliss was having dreams about the Priors long before the Ori invaded," Jonas told her and Kayliss transferred her glare to him. Did he had to talk about her as if she wasn't there?

"Same as the others," Faith told him, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Me, I got one of SG-1 in trouble and a bunch of girls. Jumped on my bike and forced my way through the 'Gate. Arrived just in time to stop Cam from being skewered by a holographic knight and watched the Ori kick our asses when they arrived. Got left behind on one of their ships when they beamed Danny-boy up, fought my way off..."

"That's when I met her!" Mallie piped up.

"Been bouncing round the galaxy ever since," shrugged Faith. "Trying to get back and picking up more slayers as I go."

"Jonas knows the address," Kayliss told her sweetly. "I'm sure he'd be willing to give it to you." Hopefully she'd splat up against the SGC's iris, she thought resentfully.

"No shit," said Faith. "Don't suppose he's got one of those GDO thingys too?"

"Actually..." said Jonas and Faith stared at him.

"You're shitting me!" she said. "Who _are_ you?"

"I told you," Jonas said with a grin. "I'm Jonas Quinn."

**l**

Although Jool didn't exactly leap out of bed in the morning, she wasn't slow about getting out of bed either. Life looked brighter today. Just breaking the ice with Jon, even though they hadn't spoken about it, had helped to ease some of the tension she was been feeling. Patrolling last night had been a good idea. And he had promised that he would be in today. Oz was going to pick him up to make sure.

She wondered if she had time to spar with Teal'c before she met the guys for breakfast. First though, she had to apologise to Vala.


	21. How Kayliss Became Liss

**A/N**

This has actually been ready to post for a while now but I've had no internet connection and haven't been able to post it. The problem with going round other people's houses to use theirs is that you have to be sociable and then you wind forgetting half of what you wanted to do! Sorry for the delay and I hope to have the next chapter up in a matter of weeks. I'd also like to thank the reviewers I haven't managed to respond to yet. Sorry guys!

In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy!

**How Kayliss Became Liss**

The underground base came alive as the two groups talked, learning each other's history and reaching an agreement. Jonas and the Resistance were welcome to their ship, its naquada and anything else they didn't want that could be useful to the Resistance. In return, they would provide Faith and the others with everything they needed to get back to Earth. Kayliss would, reluctantly, start training with them. She still wasn't buying into the slayer gig.

Finally, starving, Jonas called a halt to the meeting. "What I wouldn't give for a cup of coffee," he said, stretching. He'd pulled plenty of all-nighters before, but he wasn't getting any younger.

"We have coffee," said Nya, the first time she had spoken all night. "With our belongings in the woods."

"All the more reason to go get them," Jonas said to her with a smile. "After breakfast."

Kay opened the door and they left his office, ignoring the curious glances they got from the people sat at their workstations in the other room. Jonas turned to Faith as Jem led the way to the dining room.

"How're my fish?" he asked her.

"What fish?" she asked, startled.

"I gave them to Doctor Jackson," Jonas elaborated, hoping to jog her memory.

"Daniel has fish?"

**l**

The knocking refused to go away. Sighing in frustration, Vala pushed the eye mask she wore up and threw the covers back. Getting out of bed, she stumbled to the door, stubbing her toe on her chest of drawers before she thought to turn on a light. Glancing at her clock, she frowned.

"This had better be an emergency," she said hotly as she pulled her door open, "You're disturbing my beauty- Oh. It's you." Vala scowled at the redhead standing contritely outside her door, "What do you want?"

"I've come to apologise," Jool told her.

"I'm listening..." said Vala, intrigued.

"I'm a horrible cow," said Jool and Vala had to admit that it was a good opening. "I shouldn't have jumped down your throat yesterday and I'm sorry. My only excuse is that I'm PMT-ing like a bitch. I grovel at your feet for forgiveness."

"I see no grovelling," Vala archly pointed out.

"You want me to actually get down there?" Jool asked dubiously.

"I suppose I can forgive you..." said Vala, trailing her fingertip up and down the doorframe. "On one condition."

"Name it," Jool foolishly said.

"Tell me what a slayer is," begged Vala.

Jool sighed, defeated, "Inside."

**l**

Faith watched Jem closely as he led the way through the sewers of Kelowna. The young teenager knew exactly where he was taking them. How had he become so familiar with sewers at such a young age? She knew how she'd done it, the same way she'd done everything in life. The hard way. He even knew which patches were driest and she found herself following his footsteps. After a while, Nya copied her, while the six men accompanying them forged their own paths. They'd learn.

The slayers had split up. Mallie and Kay were leading Liss and a bunch of eggheads to the ship while Nya and Faith took another bunch of people to help them pick up their stuff. Jonas had stayed behind. Apparently he was too well-known to go above ground. He even had a wanted poster on the wall of his office. Personally, Faith had never felt the urge to frame hers. But then, she'd been wanted for murder. Unlike her, Jonas was fighting for the freedom of his people. Bad thoughts! Faith shook them off.

"How old are you anyway, kid?" she asked Jem to distract herself.

"Sixteen," he said, surprising her. She'd thought he was younger but it was kinda hard to tell under all the dirt. Had he ever had a bath? "I think."

"You think?" asked Nya.

"I'm not really sure," he said.

"How can you not know when you were born?" pressed Nya. If she'd been walking next to Faith she'd've got an elbow in the ribs for that. It was obvious Jem didn't want to talk about it.

"I was a kid," he said defensively. "It was hard to keep track."

"But did your parents not tell you?" Nya's questions just kept coming.

"Drop it, Ny!" Faith told her sharply. Soon as they got back, she was stuffing her back in the burka!

She dropped it. After a while, her quiet, "Oh!" told Faith that she got it too.

"How much further?" the big man Kay had zatted last night grumbled.

"Almost there," Jem told them, and they were.

Rounding a corner, they came to an outlet pipe large enough for two people to walk side by side. A grate with a door in the centre stopped anyone from leaving. Jem pulled a bundle of cloth out of his pocket, unrolling it to pluck out two lockpicking tools. Faith's estimation of him went up again.

**l**

"Are we there yet?" one of the scientists Mallie and Kay were escorting to the te'tak whined.

"Nearly," Kay told her through gritted teeth. It was the third time he had asked. "See that clearing? We left it there."

"Where?" asked Kayliss, frowning as she looked for it.

"By that fallen tree, there," Kay pointed out the tree they had crashed into.

"I don't see it," said Kayliss, worried.

"That's because it's cloaked," Mallie explained as though it should be obvious.

"Then how do you know it's still there?" Kayliss asked.

"We don't," Kay told her. "We could be walking into a trap."

"Um..." said the annoying scientist. He didn't even have the decency to make up for his personality by being good looking. "Maybe we should wait here?"

"Good idea," said Kay, glad of the chance to be rid of him. "Liss, stay with them. Any trouble, get back to Faith."

"Don't call me Liss!" Kayliss protested as the two ran towards the tree they had pointed out.

No-one shot at them and they quickly reached it. Kayliss watched as Mallie held her hand out and an opening appeared in the air. Kay waved them over as Mallie disappeared inside the opening. Kayliss hurried the scientists over to her and into the tel'tak.

The walls inside were lined with gold and carved with figures. Staring at them, Kayliss barely registered the door closing behind her, Kay falling into step with her.

"So what are you going to do with her?" Kay asked, trailing a hand along the wall. "She kind of feels like home," she explained when Kayliss looked curiously at her.

"We're giving her to Terania, my country," Kayliss told her. "Teran, our capital, was destroyed by the Ori ship in the final days of the battle against them. The Ori believe them to be loyal followers, my people have worked hard to give them that impression, they can hide her easily until she is needed. They are already making plans to procure additional naquada."

"You need more?" Kay asked with some surprise.

"We're going to take as much as we can before we send her," Kayliss explained. "Ideally, leaving just enough for the trip."

"Let me give your pilot some flying lessons before you do," Kay told her as they entered the control room. "Who is your pilot, anyway?"

"Me," said the irritating scientist and Kay suppressed a groan.

**l**

Munching on an apple, all she'd managed to grab for breakfast in the end, Jool roamed the hallways of the SGC. She was looking for the other members of her team; she'd missed them at breakfast. They weren't in Oz's office, or Andrew's. She'd even checked the Captain's but they weren't there either. Getting a sudden brainwave, she headed towards her own office. Sure enough, they were there. Well, most of them were.

"Two out of three ain't bad," she quoted, dropping her apple core in the small bin by the door. "Where's the Captain?"

"He vanished!" Andrew said dramatically.

"What?" Jool asked, alarmed.

"He was fine until Doctor Jackson joined us," Andrew told her. "Then he stopped talking, even though Doctor Jackson was talking to him and everything. Then, in the hallway, one minute he was there, the next he was gone. Poof!"

"Great," sighed Jool. "I'll find him and make sure he's alright. I've got an excuse to see him anyway. Vala conned me into telling her I was a slayer."

"He'll love that," commented Oz.

"Tell me about it!" Jool lamented. She sniffed, "You smell minty."

"Chaos demon," he explained succinctly.

"Still?" asked Jool, surprised. "Ick. In the meantime, don't you two have offices of your own to go to?"

"Yeah, but I like yours better," Andrew told her.

**l**

It took them several trips to move all of their stuff and it was past lunchtime before they were done. The others still weren't back. Refusing to go through it all until Kay was there (the older slayer had a much better idea of what was valuable) Faith called a break for food. Jonas joined them and he and Faith chatted easily about the things they missed about Earth. Most of it went straight over Nya and Jem's heads, things like:

"Milkshake and fries."

"Rock 'n' roll."

"Cable."

"TVs!"

"The Simpsons."

"My bike."

"Kay!" Nya greeted the short-haired woman with enthusiastically. "Mallie, Liss. Join us."

"That's not my name," Liss replied flatly as she sat down at the table.

"Razors," said Faith.

"My fish," mourned Jonas.

"The tel'tak has left," Liss informed them.

"Hopefully Wentor'll get it there in one piece," said Kay. "Not a natural flier."

"He got sick," Mallie decided to share the information with them. "All over the controls." Fortunately, none of them were the type to be put off their food.

"How much naquada did we get?" Jonas asked Liss.

"A lot," she told him. "We left Wentor with some to spare."

"Not good at navigating, either," Kay said between mouthfuls of food.

"He is, however, our Goa'uld expert," Jonas told her.

"You're our Goa'uld expert," Liss said to him. "Wentor's just your apprentice."

"I want to start refining that naquada as soon as possible," said Jonas and Faith noticed that he didn't deny it. "I'll meet you in the lab," he told Liss.

"I'll come now," Liss offered, picking up her tray.

"No, you stay," said Jonas. "Finish your meal." He glanced at Faith, "Get to know each other."

Get to know each other? Kayliss didn't want to get to know Faith. She wanted to get rid of her. She transferred her gaze from Jonas' back as he walked out of the door, leaving her, to Faith. Faith grinned widely at her.

"What?" Liss asked suspiciously.

"Your face," said Faith. "You looked like a kid who'd just been told Christmas was cancelled."

"What's Christmas?" Mallie asked curiously.

"Religious holiday," Faith told her. "Basically an excuse to eat a lot, drink a lot, fight a lot and get some presents."

"Sounds fun," Kayliss commented sarcastically.

Faith's face softened as she looked into the middle distance. "It can be," she said wistfully. Faith missed Mallie and Kay's shared look, but Kayliss didn't. "Anyway!" said Faith, bringing herself back to the here and now. "I'm sure Liss' got questions, so... fire away."

"Please stop calling me that," Kayliss said frostily. "It's not my name. My name is Kayliss. I like it. Please use it."

"No," said Faith, crossing her arms and waiting to see what she would do.

Kayliss pushed her half-finished plate away from her. "I'm finished," she said, getting up.

"Training in two hours!" Faith called after her as she stalked from the room.

"Well," said Mallie, popping a piece of bread into her mouth. "That went well."

**l**

"Colonel Carter?"

Sam looked up from her computer and smiled at the woman standing in her doorway. "Jool, come in," she said, beckoning her. "I thought I told you to call me Sam?"

"I know," said Jool, shutting the door behind her. "It's just..." she shrugged awkwardly.

Sam understood. "What can I do for you?" she asked.

"I can't find the Captain," said Jool. "I've looked everywhere and I thought, maybe..."

"I'd know where to look?" Sam finished the sentence for her.

"Yes," Jool sighed, smiling in relief.

"Have you tried his office?" asked Sam.

"I have to admit it wasn't the first place I looked," Jool told her. "He's not there."

"Did you try looking under his desk?" Sam asked curiously.

"No..." Jool said slowly. "Thanks!"

"You might want to try the armoury as well," Sam suggested.

"Anywhere else?" asked Jool, one hand on the doorknob.

"A couple of places..." said Sam, thinking.

**l**

"Jon?"

Jon ignored the voice, concentrating on his Nintendo DS. He was finally about to confront Bowser in his lair. Footsteps approached his desk and he scowled.

"Jon? I know you're here."

His computer chair was moved away and two feet appeared. Daniel crouched down to Jon's eye level.

"Hi," he said.

"Go away," Jon told him, not bothering to look at him.

"I came to see if you wanted to talk," Daniel said softly.

Jon scoffed, "**Now** you want to talk!"

"Jon..." said Daniel.

"I said, go **away** Daniel!" Jon said fiercely, shoving him out of the way. He climbed out from under his desk as Daniel over-balanced and tumbled to the floor. "You didn't want to talk three years ago and I don't want to talk now. Leave me alone."

"Jon... It's not that I didn't want to talk..." Daniel told him, picking himself up off the floor.

Jon didn't stick around to hear the rest, slamming his office door behind him. Great. Now he needed to find a better hiding place!

**l**

He wasn't under his desk. He wasn't in any of the places Sam had told her to look. In desperation, Jool took the lifts up to the checkpoint and learned that he was definitely still in the mountain. Somewhere. God only knew where. She'd only been here a few months, he had once worked here for years. He could be anywhere. Jool gave up and returned to her office, grumbling under her breath the whole way there.

"Urgh!" she vented her feelings as soon as she got there, slamming the door behind her. "Drat the man! Let him stew in his own juices!"

Yanking her chair back, she sat down and scooted forwards. Her feet collided with something large and warm and she leapt back with a shriek.

"Ow!" complained Jon, rubbing his ribs as he sat folded up under her desk. "Easy there, Doc. Talking about me?"

"No!" Jool denied immediately. Too immediately. She wouldn't have believed her either. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding," Jon brought his finger up to his firm lips. "Shh! I'm not here."

"Have you eaten?" asked Jool.

"Yes," Jon told her. His stomach growled loudly. "Breakfast."

"I'll get you something," she said, getting back up. "Stay here. We need to talk."

"About what?" Jon asked, alarmed.

"Vala," she told him. "She knows I'm the slayer."

"Aw, for crying out loud!" cried Jon. "Who told her?"

"Me," Jool admitted, hurriedly shutting the door behind her.

She could hear his explosion through it.

**l**

"I have to go," Kayliss said regretfully. "Training."

"Can I watch?" Jonas asked eagerly, to her surprise and delight.

"Of course!" she said with a wide grin.

"Great," said Jonas, tidying their worktop. "I can't wait to see a slayer in action!"

He'd seen **her** in action for the last two years, Kayliss thought mournfully. He'd never been this excited about it. Intrigued, maybe.... If this Faith was to be believed then she was a slayer too. Really not looking forward to what was coming, Kayliss walked silently beside Jonas to the dining room.

Faith and the others had pushed the tables and chairs to the edges of the room, leaving them a large space to work in. They were sitting on one of the tables on the other side of the room, talking amongst themselves. Faith hopped down as soon as she saw them.

"Jonas!" she said as she walked across the room to join them. "Come to watch?"

"If you'll have me," Jonas told her with a smile.

"No problem," Faith told him. "Just stay out of the way."

"Of course," Jonas promised earnestly.

"You're with Nya," Faith told Kayliss. She walked her over. "Don't worry 'bout holding back or any of that shit, just go all out. We're just as strong as you."

Kayliss' mouth twisted sceptically but she kept it shut. Faith left her with Nya and walked back to Jonas. Kayliss smiled awkwardly at Nya and stared at the floor.

"Mallie attacking, Kay, defence," Faith called out and the other two took the floor. "Now!"

Kayliss' mouth dropped and stayed open as Mallie and Kay executed one of the most flawless and impressive displays she had ever seen. Mallie seemed to be everywhere at once as she tried to land a blow on Kay. Conversely, Kay barely moved as she worked to block Mallie.

"Switch!" Faith called and instantly the change was noticeable.

Now it was Kay attacking Mallie and it was clear that neither of them was as good at their new style of fighting. A lot more blows were getting through, and Mallie was landing some of her own.

"You two," said Faith, looking at Kayliss and Nya. "Whenever you're ready."

"Why did you pair Kayliss with Nya?" Jonas asked curiously as two slayers skirted the duelling pair, heading to the opposite side of the room.

"Ny's our weakest fighter," Faith told him quietly. "I want to see what Liss can do." She wasn't expecting much since the Langaran slayer had backed off over lunch.

"She really doesn't like being called that," Jonas told her with a grin as he thought of the shock Faith was in for if she'd paired Kayliss with her weakest fighter.

"I know," Faith said with an answering grin.

The grin fell off her face, replaced by the predicted shock when Nya and Liss began fighting. Liss obliterated poor Nya.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Faith shouted, rushing over to break it up. "Ny, you okay?"

"I am fine," Nya told her, standing up with her hand pressed over her bleeding nose.

"You want to sit the rest of the session out?" Faith asked her.

"I said I am fine," Nya said stubbornly.

"Okay, change of plan," said Faith. "Mallie, pair up with Liss."

It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. Enraged, Liss pulled her fist back, planting it squarely in the middle of Faith's face. Faith staggered back and quickly held her hand up to prevent the others from attacking Liss en masse.

"Okay," she said, shaking it off. "New plan. Prepare for an ass-kicking, bitch."

Liss sneered at her and Faith attacked. If it wasn't over quite as quickly as Liss' bout with Nya, it still didn't last long. In a short amount of time, Faith was holding Liss tightly, preventing her from moving.

"Give up?" she demanded.

"Never!" screamed Liss.

"Good," said Faith. She let Liss go, shoving her away. "That's the second rule. Right after don't die. Now... are you ready to fight Mallie like a good little slayer?"

Liss roared in frustration, charging at Faith. Faith calmly stepped to one side and used her momentum to send her into a pile of chairs.

"Fight amongst yourselves," she told the others as Liss began to dig her way out of the chairs. "This might take a while."

**l**

"She wants to **what**?" Jon asked incredulously.

"She wants to go patrolling with us," Jool repeated herself.

"Over my dead body!" cried Jon. "Do you know how many forms I'd have to fill out so she could leave the base? And that's **if** General Landry lets us."

"Captain..." Jool wheedled. "She's my friend. She doesn't get to go outside much. Besides, she doesn't really believe me when I tell her vampires are real."

Jon thought about it. "Think she'll scream?"

"Probably," Jool shrugged.

"Care to put money on it?" Jon asked.

"Does that mean you'll ask him?"

**l**

Adria sat alone in a deserted room. She liked being alone. So much of her life was spent surrounded by others, yet none of them were the one she desperately wanted with her. None of them were her mother. Now, her eyes closed, she attempted to commune with her fathers. She desperately needed their guidance to find Faith.

Praemas' self-doubt and nervousness clouded her mind however and she sighed impatiently. She would have to deal with him first. Concentrating, she commanded him to attend her.

His self-doubt faded, replaced by fear and more nervousness. Adria smiled. Good. He arrived quickly, which was also good and enough to make Adria considering favouring him with a smile. One of her soldiers had described her smile as dazzlingly radiant. He was dead now, so she'd never get a chance to ask him if he'd meant it or not.

"Do you know why I have summoned you?" she asked Praemas imperiously.

"I do not," Praemas admitted.

"Do you know why I have brought you here?" Adria asked him.

"No," he said.

"And still you came..." mused Adria. Such was the power of the Orici. She rose from her seat, crossing to the large sloping window with the excellent view of the city. "Faith is here."

"Faith?" exclaimed Praemas, shocked.

"And your little bride-to-be," Adria told him. "They're all here. Every one she's found so far. This is our chance to take them. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Orici," Praemas intoned, bowing low.

Much better. Adria smiled at her reflection. It really was quite dazzling.

**l**

Andrew snuck back into Jool's office while Jon was gone, curling up into one of the comfy chairs she kept for just that purpose. She let him, partly because he was at least quiet while he worked on translating the unknown word in Faith's prophecy, but mainly because he bought a whole chocolate cake for them to snack on while they worked. Plus it would help to dissolve the disturbing intimacy that had sprung up between the Captain and her.

When Jon did arrive back, he entered the room as though the hounds of hell were on his heels. Andrew jumped as the door slammed shut behind him.

"I think Daniel saw me!" Jon said urgently, diving for Jool's desk. "I'm not here!"

The scene that greeted Daniel when he opened the door was one of peaceful tranquillity. Andrew was still curled up on his chair, although books now littered the floor around him where they'd fallen and Jool was tying a report into her computer. She looked up at him, smiling pleasantly.

"Doctor Jackson. What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Have you seen Jon?" asked Daniel, looking around the room.

"Not recently," Jool told him. "I think he went to go talk to General Landry about Vala accompanying us patrolling tonight."

"Yes, I heard you'd told her about slayers," said Daniel, coming slightly further into the room. "Are you sure that was a wise idea?"

"Wise or not, it was my decision, Doctor Jackson," Jool rebuked him gently. "I think there've been entirely too many secrets around here lately."

"I see," said Daniel, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Well, if you see him, can you tell him I'm looking for him?"

"Will do," Jool promised, smiling widely. He left, shutting the door behind him and she pushed her chair away from her desk, looking at the man hiding under it.

"Oh, Captain, there you are," she said. "Doctor Jackson's looking for you."

"Duly noted," said Jon, pulling out his DS.

"You can't stay under there forever, you know," Jool told him.

"Watch me," Jon said, turning the small machine on.

"What about Vala?" asked Jool. "Can she come?"

"General Landry says she can't come out to play tonight," Jon told her. "Maybe tomorrow. Pass the cake."

**l**

Jonas regarded the woman opposite him sadly. Kayliss squirmed in her seat, avoiding his gaze. Her face was a puffy mess and, remembering the hits she had taken, Jonas had no doubt that the rest of her looked just as bad. He sighed as he stared at her. She looked nothing like the shy girl who had first impressed him with her brilliance from the back row of his university class three years ago. After the earlier events, he wasn't sure he knew her any more.

"I'm sorry," Kayliss said finally.

"Sorry for what?" Jonas asked wearily. He hadn't had a chance to sleep last night and he was bone tired.

"Sorry I didn't smash **her** face in," Kayliss admitted savagely.

"You attacked her seventeen times before she finally knocked you unconscious," Jonas pointed out.

"She kept calling me Liss!" Kayliss protested.

Jonas sagged back in his chair. He sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere. Maybe if he tackled it with a fresh head in the morning? No, if he left it, it would fester.

"It suits you, you know," he said finally. "Liss... It's light, airy... graceful. Kind of reminds me of candyfloss. Like you." Kayliss stared at him and he pressed home his advantage, "You've got to learn to get along with her. When you leave with them-"

"Leave?" Kayliss interrupted, horrified. "I'm not going with them!"

"You have to," Jonas told her. "Someone needs to be Langara's voice on Earth. To tell them what we're doing."

"Can't Faith do that?" Kayliss asked.

"Not as well as a Langaran," Jonas said. "Not as well as a Teranian."

Oh, that was a low blow! Bringing her ravaged country into it. Kayliss would willingly do whatever Jonas asked of her, whether he realised it or not. But could she do this? She wasn't sure.

"Liss..." he said softly, and she melted. It sounded so different on his lips.

"I'll try," she promised.

"And you'll go with them?" Jonas wanted more from her.

"I will," Liss reluctantly agreed.

**l**

Jon was just climbing out from under the Doc's desk to go home when there was a knock on the door. He dived back under cover. The Doc sighed exasperatedly. Her foot tapped, once, twice, and then her footsteps crossed the room. She opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she asked and Jon wondered who she was fobbing off for him this time. He didn't have long to wait to find out.

"Forgive the intrusion," Teal'c rumbled. "I wished to enquire as to Jonathon O'Neil's whereabouts."

"He's not here," the Doc lied without hesitation. "Sorry."

"I see," said Teal'c and Jon thought he probably did. "When you do see him, would you please enquire as to whether or not he will be joining me in the gym tomorrow night as usual?"

"As usual?" asked the Doc, and Jon could hear the frown in her voice.

Sighing, he gave up, sticking his head up above the desk, "Hey, Teal'c."

"Greetings Jonathon O'Neil," Teal'c inclined his head deeply to Jon, the only sign that he found the situation highly amusing his dancing eyes.

"I'll be there," he promised. "Eight?"

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "I shall look forward to it."

"Yah," said Jon, standing up. "Me too."

The Doc shut the door as Teal'c left, turning to Jon. She folded her arms obstinately, her eyebrows raising, "As usual?"

"Yeah, T and I have a regular spar date," Jon punned.

"How come I didn't know about it?" she asked. "Wait tomorrow night? That's Thursday. I always patrol on Thursdays." Jon stared at her and her red lips twisted. "Oh, I see! Cunning."

"Thank you," Jon said with some pride.

"So I assume, as you have a longstanding prior engagement, that you won't be patrolling with us tomorrow," she said, opening the door and flouncing out.

Jon stared after her. Damn!

**l**

Faith was carefully drawing nine diamonds when she became aware that someone was standing over her shoulder. The others had mostly gotten over their curiosity when she refused to tell them what she was doing so and Liss hated her, so she knew it couldn't be a slayer. Carefully setting the card to one side so it didn't get smudged, she looked up.

"Cards?" Jonas asked cheerfully. He looked like crap. Pale as a vampire with great shadows under his eyes. Faith wondered how long it had been since he had seen the sun. "I've got a pack in my room. I play patience when I'm bored. Haven't been bored in a while."

"Do you know how to play poker?" asked Faith, her eyes lighting up. "I want to teach the others."

"Can we do it tomorrow night?" Jonas asked, sounding exhausted.

"Sure," Faith agreed easily. "I need to find something we can use for chips anyway."

"I'll see you in the morning," Jonas told her with a smile.

"Night Jonas," said Faith.

Watching him go, she found herself feeling guilty. Jonas was helping them, no questions asked. Okay, maybe he'd asked a couple of questions, but Faith hadn't told him everything. She hadn't told him about Whistler, and his warning not to let other people do her dialling. But she wasn't planning to let anyone else. She'd do the actual dialling, Jonas was just giving her the help she needed. She still felt guilty though. Why did he have to be such a nice guy?"

**l**

Kayliss was rudely woken at an ungodly time in the morning. She wouldn't have minded, but she'd been working through the night as usual and had only just fallen asleep. She almost punched the nagging Kay and went back to sleep but the thought of her promise to Jonas the night before dragged her out of her bed. She glared at Kay until the older woman went away and left her to dress in peace.

She knew she shouldn't be taking her frustration out on Kay. She shouldn't be taking it out on anyone. She shouldn't be feeling it at all! But she'd worked hard to earn her position by Jonas' side, proven herself over and over again in ways she hadn't believed possible, and in one day, Faith had usurped her place and shattered all her dreams. He looked at Faith in a way that he had never looked at her. Kayliss stared at her reflection in the mirror and sternly told herself to be honest with herself. She was jealous.

Newly arrived in Kelowna, one of a handful of overseas scholarship students at Langara's most prestigious university, she'd fallen in love with her professor barely two weeks into the school year. The intensity of the emotion had left her tongue-tied at the back of his class. She'd thought he hadn't noticed her until one day, near the end of term, he'd held her back after class.

Her heart pounding, she had wondered what mistake she had made to call down his wrath. To her great surprise, he began to compliment her on her work instead. She had stared mutely at him. He had asked her why she didn't participate in class discussions and she'd only been able to make vowel sounds. He'd taken her under his wing, assuming that she was cripplingly shy, when really she was hopelessly in love for the first time in her life, and she'd soaked up every scrap of affection he'd sent her way.

By the day she'd woken up inhumanly strong, he'd started calling her his protégé. She'd tried to conceal the change in her for as long as possible, not wanting to see the revulsion in his eyes when he realised that that she was a freak. That had only lasted until he'd caught her staring at a photograph of a Prior that he had carelessly left in the open. She'd told him about her nightmares, and then when he excitedly told her about hok'taurs, she'd demonstrated her strength.

He'd brought her into Langara's Stargate program. Oh, they weren't anything like the StarGate Command he had told her of. They were mostly concerned with research and development. But she had been off-world a few times, although never to Earth. Now, she would get that opportunity. But she had never stepped foot off Langara without Jonas by her side before. She didn't want to leave him behind. She had saved his life several times during the battle against the Ori. She didn't want him to die while she was gone persuading the Tau'ri to help them. She didn't want to lose him. On the verge of crying, she was almost relieved to hear the soft knock on her door.

"Kayliss?" Kay called softly through the door. "Are you ready yet?"

Sniffing, Kayliss straightened her shoulders and went to meet her fate. Training.

**l**

Cam found himself awake when it was still dark. Try as he might, he couldn't go back to sleep. He kept trying until the sky began to lighten and then gave up, deciding to go into work early. Maybe he could clear his desk if he got an early enough start. Wishful thinking, but that was how he found himself entering NORAD just as the first streaks of dawn threw fingers across the sky.

The sentries were half-asleep as they granted him access to the SGC, and he made a mental note to speak to General Landry about tightening night-time security. He didn't meet anyone in the elevators, but he wasn't really expecting to. Those on duty were at their post and those not on duty were either at home or still asleep.

So he was surprised when the elevator doors opened on level twenty-five to reveal Doctor Wilson. Her bright red hair pulled back into a tight plait and wearing black SGC-issued vest and pants, the English slayer exuded an air of danger that reminded him sharply of Faith. She looked just as surprised to see him.

"Good morning, Colonel," she said, slipping into the elevator.

"'Morning," Cam replied as he exited, heading towards his office. What was she doing up so early?

**l**

Jonas savoured his first sip of coffee in months. He'd had to leave his personal stash behind when the Ori had invaded and, oh, how he'd missed it. He felt a sudden empathy for Faith and her cigarettes. Sweet caffeine...

"Your girl's got some moves," said Faith, sitting down opposite him. "When she's calm enough to use 'em."

Jonas swallowed his mouthful of coffee. "She doesn't like being called Liss," he said mildly.

"That's what that was all about?" Faith asked rhetorically. "Damn. Here I thought it was 'cause she didn't like me."

They shared a look of mutual understanding as Jonas drank his coffee and Faith slayed a sausage. Jonas wondered where the other slayers who seemed to cling to Faith like a drowning man to a rope were.

"I want to set up an obstacle course," Faith suddenly told him. "Get the girls dodging weapons fire."

"Not live?" asked Jonas.

"I figure we'll use zats," Faith said. "Slayers can shrug those off. I wanted to borrow Jem to help me get it set up."

"Who's going to fire the zats?" Jonas asked curiously.

Faith shrugged, "You busy tonight?"

"I'll have to check my diary," Jonas joked with a grin.

"Cool," said Faith, grinning back as she lent back in her chair and picked up her own mug of coffee. "Have your people call my people."

"Are we your people?" Nya asked as she, Mallie and Kay appeared at their table. "Who are Jonas' people?"

**l**

Two hours later, Cam had got virtually no work done. He'd spent his time lost in daydreams of Faith. His stomach rumbling emptily, he pushed himself back from his desk. The hallways were more busy now, with the odd person travelling here and there. As he waited for the elevator to arrive, he found himself wondering what Doctor Wilson had been doing up so early. When the elevator arrived, she was in it, sweaty and dishevelled. Blinking at each other in shock, she was the first to recover.

"Hello again," she smiled at him.

"Hey," Cam smiled back as they passed each other.

"If you're going to the mess, I wouldn't," she recommended, and Cam held the doors open as they tried to close. "Andrew's not due in for another hour."

Great. Cam had had Andrew's food in the past and he knew just how superior it was to anything the base normally had to offer. Morale had actually taken a dip during the week SG-13 had been off-duty. He got back out of the elevator, resigned to the wait.

"I've got some cereal bars in my room if you want something to snack on while you wait," she offered unexpectedly.

"Uh..." Cam eyed her uncertainly. From Vala that would have been a come on, but the Doctor's tone was brisk. "Sure."

"Cool," she said. "I'll just go have a shower and then I'll drop them by your office, okay?"

Relief made Cam's smile slightly wider than it would normally have been, "Thanks."

"See you in twenty minutes," she told him, turning off the main hallway.

Cam returned to his office and started on the pile of requisition forms that were waiting for his approval. But he still couldn't work. His head wasn't in the game. It was off with Faith, wherever she was. Intel said that she was gathering slayers. Teal'c had said that Duran had mentioned three other women, Mallie, Kay and Nya. The prophecy said that she had to lead them back to Earth. So all he could do was trust that she would return. And wait.

Waiting wasn't one of his strong points. Cam knew himself well enough to know that. Inaction drove him crazy and not being able to do anything to rescue Faith was eating him up. She was fast becoming his obsession. To the point where it was beginning to affect his work, despite General Landry's bracing words in Minnesota.

He needed to get his head back in the game. The problem was that, with no off-world missions currently scheduled because both Sam and Jackson were buried deep in research, there was nothing to distract him except endless paperwork. And that was enough to drive anyone crazy. But he couldn't go crazy. He'd asked for SG-1 and he'd got it. Now, the fate of the galaxy rested on his shoulders too and he'd had no idea just how heavy a load that was to bear.

"Suck it up, Cam," he muttered to himself.

"Suck what up?" a crisp English accent asked.

Cam looked up to see Doctor Wilson standing in his doorway, her uniform crisp and her face freshly scrubbed. She looked like a soldier. A young one. He blinked at her, momentarily confused as to why she was there, and she raised her hand to draw his attention to the food she held.

"Cereal bar?" she asked.

Cam stomach grumbled as his memory returned and he leaned back in his chair with his easy grin. Doctor Wilson grinned back and threw a cereal bar to him. Cam neatly caught it, and tore it open.

"Thanks," he said, biting off a large chunk.

"No problem," she told him. "I've always got a stash of food if you ever need it."

"Why?" Cam asked as she turned to go.

"Slayer's have large appetites," she said, turning half back.

"No," Cam told her. That wasn't what he had meant. "Why are you sharing?"

"Well," she said considering the question as she entered the room fully. "You've been here awhile and you were clearly hungry and we're a team, aren't we?" Cam frowned at her. Were they? "The whole of the SGC, I mean," she elaborated when she saw the look of confusion on his face. "We're all working together to defeat the Ori."

"I guess," said Cam, struck by her unique point of view.

It wasn't one that he'd really considered before now. He'd read other team's reports, he had to, it was part of his job, but he'd never really thought about how everyone here was trying to find a way to fight the Ori, some with more success than others. He'd been too focussed on his own team's efforts, and on Faith to give the concept much thought.

"That's a bit morbid, isn't it?" asked Doctor Wilson, interrupting his thoughts as she caught a glimpse of what he'd been working on.

Cam followed her gaze down to the page he'd been working on, surprised to see that the whole paper was covered in small sketches of Faith, dying in various ways. Surprised and horrified. He picked the page up, sliding it into a drawer of his desk, intending to burn it later. Maybe that would banish the images from his memory.

"I'm sure she's fine," the Doctor told him reassuringly. "Faith's stronger than you think."

"Yeah," said Cam, unconvinced. He knew just how strong Faith was, but he also knew her weaknesses, and what she was up against.

"I'm serious," Doctor Wilson insisted, sliding into the seat in front of his desk and looking at him earnestly. "Faith managed to pull herself back from the edge. She killed a human, **two** humans, and came back to fight beside Buffy at the Battle of Sunnydale. No slayer has ever managed that before."

"Do you know her?" Cam asked her with a small frown. The Doctor was well-informed. Did all slayers know Faith's history?

"I never met her," she admitted. "But I was the same age as her when she was called and I kind of took an interest. Much to my guardian's disapproval. He would have preferred me to study Buffy."

"Then you don't know her," Cam told her.

"Maybe not," she said patiently. "But I know what she's capable of and I think she'll surprise you. She'll come back, Colonel."

"I hope so," said Cam.

"I know so," she persisted. She grinned suddenly, "Have faith!"

He'd like to. He'd love to. But Faith was gone.

"I'm not usually this negative," he confided, surprising himself.

"I figured," she said. "You wouldn't be the head of SG-1 if you were."

"It's just..." Cam sighed. "There's nothing I can do."

"Yes there is," the Doctor told him. "We can find her. We might not be able to bring her back until the time is right, but there's nothing in the prophecy to say that we can't help her. Prophecies aren't set in stone, you know."

"They're not?" Cam asked. That wasn't the impression that Jackson had given him.

"There're usually loopholes you can exploit," she explained. "For example, there was a prophecy saying that Buffy would die when she was sixteen, but she's still alive."

"I thought she did die," Cam pointed out.

"Well, yeah," admitted the red-haired slayer, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "But there was nothing saying she couldn't be resuscitated, which is how she defeated the Master."

"Didn't she die twice?" asked Cam.

"Maybe..." the Doctor said awkwardly. She sighed, "Look the point is that even The Powers aren't infallible; and that slayers are strong. Faith'll make it back."

"I keep trying to tell myself that," Cam told her. "But it gets harder and harder to believe it."

"You two were linked by the Mind-Melder," said Doctor Wilson. "To the point where Caroline thinks that you're still experiencing after-effects. Can't you tell if she's alive or dead?"

"Yes," said Cam. "No. Maybe..." He still thought he could almost feel Faith's presence in his mind, but the more he tried to grab hold of the sensation the further it slipped from his grasp.

"Then hold on to that," she told him intently. "As long as Faith is alive, she'll find her way home."

"Thanks," Cam said, crumpling up the empty cereal bar wrapper and expertly chucking it in the bin. "Not just for the food."

"The advice is free," the slayer told him, getting up. "The food I expect you to replace. I don't get many opportunities to go shopping." She smiled at him.

"Sure," Cam smiled back. "Anything else I can get while I there?"

"Actually," she said with a grin. "I've been dying to try Oreos."

"Oreos it is," said Cam and she headed for the door.

"Oh," she remembered, turning back to him in the doorway. "We're taking Vala patrolling tonight, it's her first time."

"I heard," Cam said. Vala had been loudly sceptical about the existence of the supernatural.

"Do you want to come with us?" she invited. "Get some firsthand experience of what slayers face on a nightly basis?"

"Faith took me patrolling when she was here," Cam told her.

"Right," said the English slayer. "Okay. Just a thought."

"Sure," Cam accepted the offer on the spur of the moment. Perhaps it would help him sleep tonight. "Thanks."

"Cool," she said with a wide grin. "Meet us at Evergreen cemetery at eight. Oz says that there's a couple of vampire victims being buried today that might rise."

**l**

Kayliss worked alone at the bench she had shared with Jonas yesterday. Together with the other scientists, she was continuing his work refining the naquada they had retrieved from Faith's tel'tak. Soon, they would have enough to begin working on the bomb casings for the weapons-grade naquada they were making. It was a difficult process that required concentration. Concentration that was broken when there was a loud hiss from the door.

Kayliss turned to look, along with everyone else in the room. In the doorway, Faith beckoned her. Everyone turned to look at her. Calmly, she stopped the process she was supervising and packed her things away. Following Faith into the corridor, she closed the door behind them.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Jonas wants you," Faith told her, walking towards Jonas' office.

"I know the way," Kayliss told her.

"He wants me too," said Faith. Oh. Not just her then, Kayliss thought bitterly as Faith confided, "We're makin' battle plans."

Disappointment kept Kayliss silent and Faith glanced at her, "When you gonna tell him you're in love with him?"

Kayliss gasped. "I am not!" she denied.

"Are too," Faith grinned at her

"I certainly am not!" Kayliss said emphatically. "And if you think that Jonas would believe such-"

"Relax..." said Faith. "I figure if he ain't smart enough to see it for himself, it's not my business to tell him."

"I'm not in love with him," insisted Kayliss.

"Keep telling yourself that," Faith told her as they reached the busy intelligence room that led to Jonas' office. "One day you might believe it. Course... you'll be lying to yourself."

"I'm not," Kayliss repeated futilely as they approached Jonas' office.

"Kayliss," said Faith, her hand on the doorhandle. "Shut up."

Kayliss shut up and Faith opened the door. They entered the room to find Jonas deep in conversation with Mallie, Jem, Nya and Kay. Looking up, he waved them over with a grin. Faith shut the door behind them as Kayliss joined the group, sitting down on one of the chairs that had been brought in especially for this meeting.

"We were just discussing the best means of entering the Lithair Building," he told them. "Jem says there's a small waste tunnel leading up into the basement restrooms."

"Very small," said Jem as Faith sat down in the last available chair, right at the back of the group. "It's just about big enough for Jonas to fit."

"We won't be able to carry anything," Kay told Faith. "No staff weapons... we'll be lucky if we can take the zat'nik'tels."

"No problem," said Faith. "We can drag our stuff behind us. What do you mean, just big enough for Jonas to fit?"

"I'm coming with you," Jonas told her.

"What?" said Kayliss, hope springing in her breast.

"Thought you were needed here?" asked Faith.

"I'm not coming to Earth," said Jonas, dashing Kayliss' hopes. "I'll be leading your accompanying strike force."

"No," cried Kayliss. It was too dangerous! Jonas ignored her, his gaze locked with Faith's.

"You'll only slow us down," she told him.

"I promised to get you back to Earth and I intend to make sure you get through that 'Gate," Jonas said. "You go with me or you don't go at all. Besides, SGC protocol prevents me from giving you my GDO code. You need me."

"And what'll happen to your precious resistance if you get killed?" Faith asked, trying one last time to get him to change his mind. He had her and he knew it. Jonas shrugged as Liss turned white. How did he not see she was in love with him?

"In that case someone else will take my place," he said. "But I'll be taking twenty of my best men with us to try and make sure that doesn't happen."

"Better make it twenty that fit," Mallie told him with a grin.

"Good point," Jonas smiled at her.

"Jonas, you can't," Kayliss said desperately.

"I'm going, Liss," Jonas spoke firmly but kindly. Kayliss bit her lip, and then nodded, her face still pale and troubled.

"So, once we get in, where's the 'Gate?" Faith asked, changing the subject to take Jonas' attention away from the stricken slayer.

"They're keeping it in the foyer," Jonas told her, pointing it out on the blueprints spread across his desk.

"Great," said Faith in a voice that told everyone that it was anything but. They'd have to fight their way up past shitloads of Ori soldiers and god knew how many Priors.

"The diversion will start half an hour before we attack," Jonas told her.

"What diversion?" asked Faith. This was the first she'd heard of any diversion.

"We've manage to create enough weapons-grade naquada to make several small bombs," Kayliss had managed to compose herself enough to rejoin the conversation. "We plan to target Ori factories within the city to draw them out. Then, our forces will attack while we infiltrate the building."

"Andari will also be attacking Ori buildings within their country at the same time," Jonas informed them all."

"Convenient," Faith said suspiciously. "Why?"

"Andari managed to retain a small stockpile of weapons-grade naquada when the Ori invaded," Jonas explained. "They were in the process of trying to get some to us when you arrived. We've been planning a joint attack for a while now."

"So we're just an excuse?" asked Faith.

"Yeah... but a good one," Jonas said to her with a smile. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have the naquada."

**l**

Sam was just packing up the Mind-Melder and its crystals for transportation to Daniel Osbourne's office when Daniel knocked on her door. Looking up she smiled at him and waved him in.

"Daniel," she said.

"Have you got a minute?" Daniel asked and Sam nodded.

"Sure," she said, putting the crystal spike she was holding down in the crate that held it. "What's up?"

"It's Jon," Daniel told her, and Sam sighed. This wasn't the first time Daniel had been to see her about him.

"What's he done now?" she asked, sitting down behind her desk. "Is he still ignoring you?"

"I haven't seen him to be ignored," Daniel told her sulkily. "No, this is about Vala."

"What about her?" Sam asked, confused.

"Did you know that she's been invited to join SG-13 on patrol in Colorado Springs tonight?" Daniel asked, folding his arms and pushing his glasses up his nose.

"No," said Sam. "I can't see General Landry allowing it."

"He's already given his permission," Daniel told her.

"He has?" asked Sam, surprised. "Huh."

"I've tried talking her out of going, but she's too excited by the thought of getting out of the mountain to listen to me," Daniel said. "She has no idea of the danger she'll be in; I don't think she really believes Doctor Wilson," Daniel muttered to himself. "General Landry's convinced that she'll be fine."

"I'm sure she will," Sam tried to reassure him.

"Sam, you've got to talk to him," Daniel said urgently, ignoring her.

"Me?" said Sam, frowning. "Why?"

"He might listen to you," Daniel reasoned. "If he won't stop her, at least get him to let us go with her."

Sam sighed. Daniel had that stubborn set to his jaw that said louder than words that he wouldn't drop this until she'd helped him. The sooner she gave in, the sooner she could get some work done. Besides, there was always the chance that General Landry would let them go too. And if Vala didn't really believe in vampires, Sam really wanted to see her face when she saw one.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll go now."

"Thanks Sam," Daniel said gratefully.

"You owe me one," Sam warned him.

"I'll let you pick the next movie for movie night," Daniel offered, generously giving up his turn.

"Have you ever seen Amadeus?" Sam asked curiously.

**l**

Jonas could hear a muffled quarrel outside his door. Putting down his pen, he listened carefully, worried that it might be Kayliss and Faith again and that he would have to break up their fight. It was definitely two females arguing, but he didn't think he recognised Kayliss as one of them.

"You knock," said one voice.

"No, you," insisted the other.

"Why me?" the first voice wanted to know.

"Come in!" Jonas called, intrigued.

The voices fell silent, and then his door slowly opened just enough for Kay and Mallie to stick their heads through. Jonas smiled at them and Mallie beamed back.

"Hi," the blonde girl said, waving at him.

"Do you have a moment?" Kay asked him.

"Yeah, sure," said Jonas, waving them in. "What can I do for you?"

The two slayers exchanged a glance and then Kay spoke up, "You've been to Earth... Were you there for Christmas?"

"I was," Jonas told them. "Why?"

"Tell us about it?" Mallie pleaded.

**l**

Wrapt in his handheld Nintendo console, Jon jumped when the phone on the desk above him rang. Pausing his game, he listened shamelessly to the one-way conversation going on over his head, wondering if it had anything to do with him. Not that he could tell much, as it consisted mainly of one syllable replies.

"Sure," Oz said. He hung up the phone and his chair rolled back from the desk so that he could look at Jon. "Can't stay there all day, man."

"Why not?" Jon wanted to know.

"We've got a briefing with General Landry in ten minutes," Oz told Jon, standing.

"What about?" Jon asked.

Oz shrugged, "Walter didn't say."

"Bet he knows," Jon grumbled, climbing out from under the desk. He sighed, turning his DS off and stuffing it in his pocket. "Let's go."

**l**

Hank greeted them jovially as they entered the briefing room, Andrew already sitting by his side. Singlehandedly, he kept up a steady stream of polite conversation as they all waited for the Doc to make her usual late appearance. Jon was just about to suggest they start without her when she arrived, breathless and rushed.

"Sorry," she apologised, dropping into a seat. "I was looking for... you actually," she said to Jon. "Where've you been?"

"Hanging with Oz," Jon told her with a shrug.

"Yes, well, now that you're all here..." said Hank and they turned their attention to him. "There's been a change in your standing orders."

"What kind of change?" Andrew asked, looking worried.

"Two things," Hank told him. "One, the wording has changed from 'to locate and return Faith' to 'locate and provide all necessary assistance to' her."

"That's got to be because of the prophecy," said the Doc. "The Council must have realised that bringing Faith back before she's supposed to be here would be a bad thing."

"What's the other change?" Jon asked Hank, more focussed on what else could have changed than on what it meant. For the moment at least.

"SG-13 has been authorised to render assistance, as deemed necessary by me, to the SGC," Hank informed them.

"What?" asked the Doc.

"Why?" Jon wanted to know.

"I was hoping you might have a better understanding of that," Hank told them.

"I haven't spoken to anyone from the Council since we got here," said Jool with a shrug as she looked at the men on her team.

"Me either," said Andrew. "Xander's missed our last couple of online D&D games."

"Don't look at me," Jon told them as Oz shrugged. "I barely know them."

"So does this mean we get to go on real missions?" the Doc asked.

"As opposed to what?" Hank wanted to know.

"I mean against the Ori," she explained. "I'm looking forward to slaying my first Prior."

"No breaking the staff," decreed Jon.

"Agreed," said Jool, remembering Gelan's account of Faith's battle against the Prior on Duran with a shudder.

"I understood that slayers couldn't harm humans?" asked General Landry.

"What do you think Faith's doing out there?" Jon asked him. "Picking flowers? Sir," he added belatedly.

"We're not sure the Priors **are** human anymore, General," the Doc told him. "Faith's prophecy definitely refers to the Ori invasion, which is a clear indication that The Powers That Be want us to do something about it."

"Plus, Whistler said that it was open season on Ori soldiers," Andrew added helpfully.

"Who's Whistler?" Hank asked as Jon groaned, dropping his head down onto the table with a thunk. The Doc cuffed Andrew lightly around the back of the head.

"Ow!" Andrew protested. "What was that for?"

"We weren't going to tell anyone about Whistler," Oz said to him. "Remember?"

"I'll ask again," Hank said in a dangerously quiet voice. "Who is Whistler?"

"He's some sort of demon, sir," Jon told him, raising his head and lounging back in his chair. "I didn't get the exact details."

"He works for The Powers That Be," Andrew elaborated. "He's Their messenger. He puts people on their True Path." You could hear the capitalisations as he spoke.

"And he told you that you could fight the Ori?" Hank asked the Doc.

"Not me," she said, looking at Jon.

Hank turned to him and Jon sighed. "He came to me while we were on leave," he told Hank.

"Tell me exactly what he said," Hank ordered.

"He said that we weren't supposed to find Faith," Jon admitted grudgingly. "That we wouldn't like the consequences if we screwed up The Powers' plan."

"He threatened you?" Hank asked ominously.

"Not so much," Jon told him lightly. "He wanted me to pass on the message to the Doc about the Ori."

"Why didn't he deliver it himself?" Hank wanted to know.

"He said that the Stargate made him itch, sir," Jon elaborated. "Didn't want to get too close."

"Is that a common side effect?" asked Hank, looking at Oz.

The werewolf, his hair dyed a magnificent turquoise, shrugged and the Doc answered Hank, "I don't know, sir," she said. "We could ask around while we're patrolling tonight. Discretely of course."

"About that," said Hank, frowning. "Both Doctor Jackson and Colonel Carter have voiced their separate concerns. I trust that you'll take good care of her," he said to Jon.

"Actually sir, I'm not going," Jon admitted.

"You're not?" Hank's frown deepened. "I'm not sure I can allow Vala off this base without a ranking officer."

Jon brightened. Perhaps this would convince the Doc to forgive him and let him and Teal'c go patrolling with the others. He opened his mouth to say that he'd be willing to go but the Doc beat him to it.

"Colonel Mitchell is coming," she told Hank, dashing Jon's hopes. "Is that acceptable?"

"Of course!" Hank said, his frown disappearing. "Well, I think that's all. Dismissed."

"So when do we get to go on a mission?" Andrew asked him as the other members of his team stood.

"I'll let you know," Hank told him, standing up.

"But-" said Andrew.

"At **my** discretion, Mister Wells," Hank reminded him pointedly. He sensed that the young watcher was inclined to argue and quickly disappeared down the stairs to the control room. Andrew's whining could drive even Ghandi to murder.

**l**

"I thought we were training?" Mallie grumbled curiously as Faith led the slayers out of the underground base and into the sewers that were its only access.

"We are," Faith told her.

"You too?" Nya asked.

"Me too," Faith confirmed.

"Training how?" Kayliss asked suspiciously, squelching her way through the sewer.

"Obstacle course," Faith said as they reached the start of the course she and Jem had set up earlier. "Everyone has to get to the other end as quickly as possible. No-one gets left behind, got it?"

"Got it," Mallie, Nya and Kay chorused obediently.

Kayliss stared at them in disbelief. Did they really follow Faith's lead so blindly? Couldn't they see the flaws in her character that Kayliss could? The flaws that left her unfit to lead. Who was she to tell them what to do?

Someone who knew what she was doing, Kayliss discovered about halfway through the insanely difficult obstacle course Faith had concocted. Not only did they have to worry about the obstacles, all uniquely impossible to surmount alone, but they were coming under live fire as well. So far, Kayliss had managed to avoid all of the blue bolts of energy aimed at them by unseen people, but Nya had taken a couple of hits and was lagging at the back of the group, Faith by her side. The Tau'ri was encouraging the younger woman and helping her over the obstacles. Kayliss was at the front of the group with Mallie and had just skidded to a halt in front of a large pile of crates blocking their path.

"Now what?" Kayliss yelled back, irritated that there wasn't a way forward.

"Through the crates and then a sprint to the finish line," Faith told her as she and Nya joined them, Kay just in front.

"How do we get through the crates?" Mallie wanted to know, scowling.

"The old-fashioned way," said Faith, looking at her as though it should be obvious.

When Mallie still looked blank, Faith sighed and grabbed hold of the nearest crate, moving it out of the way. The others soon caught on and the pile rapidly diminished in size. Kayliss was the first one to see the other side when she pulled a heavy crate out of the heap. What had Faith packed them with? Bricks?

"Careful, Li-**Kay**liss," Faith warned.

Wondering why, Kayliss turned back to the pile of crates, noticing as she did so that Kay, working next to her, had also turned around to look at Faith. She didn't have long to ponder the reason behind Faith's warning as a bolt of blue light flew through the hole she had created, striking Kay. The older woman grunted in pain, flinging herself back out of the way.

"Are you alright?" Kayliss urgently asked her, feeling guilty. It was her fault that Kay had been distracted by Faith. If she hadn't childishly insisted that they call her by her full name then it would never have happened.

"I'm fine," Kay wheezed. She raised her voice, "They're firing ahead!"

"Great," groaned Nya.

"How are we supposed to run through that?" Mallie asked plaintively. "It is impossible!"

"I suggest you think **outside** the box," Faith recommended as the hole became big enough for them to fit through one at a time, bolts of energy flying through it. She picked up a large crate, handing it to Nya, "You game?"

"I suppose," Nya said doubtfully as Faith picked up another crate.

"Then let's go!" she said, diving through the hole with the crate held in front of her in her outstretched hands.

Kayliss heard her land on the other side and watched as, without hesitating, Mallie grabbed a crate and followed her. Kay hung back, waiting until Nya was ready before she slipped through in front of the younger girl and staying in front of her until she was sure that Nya was safely though even though Kayliss saw her get hit again.

Alone now, Kayliss seriously considered staying where she was. She really didn't want to get hit by one of those zat'nik'tels. It looked painful. On the other hand, she'd never backed down from a challenge in her life. She picked a large crate and followed them.

The crate didn't really help when she got hit, it still really hurt, but she figured that the extra mass was probably diluting the effect. It did make it harder to hold onto it though, as her arms and legs went numb. She kept her head down and kept running. She got hit again and everything went grey, the edges of her vision fading out worryingly.

"**Liss**!" Faith barked, sounding like she'd been shouting for a while. "Drop the crate!"

Kayliss complied, and promptly dropped down behind it when she saw the bolt of energy heading straight towards her. It sailed harmlessly overhead. There was a scraping sound and her crate shifted slightly as another one slammed into it. Moments later, Mallie joined her.

"Almost there," the blonde girl said breathlessly, her eyes bright. "You go left, I will go right."

"No," Kayliss overruled her. "They'll be expecting that."

"We have to go," Mallie told her.

"I know," said Kayliss. "But if we go over the top, cross each other diagonally and then dive past them, at least one of us has a chance of getting past them."

"Okay," said Mallie. "Let's do that."

And they did, crossing the finish line together. To Kayliss' surprise, Jonas and Jem were the ones firing at them. She didn't let that deter her from snatching the zat'nik'tel from Jonas' hand. Turning to do the same to Jem, she was pleased to see that Mallie had had the same idea and already held his weapon.

"It's clear!" she called and three heads popped up from behind the crates strewn along the sewer.

Suddenly, Kayliss saw Faith's plan; to use the crates from the blockage to create enough shelter for them to reach the finish line. And she'd run blindly towards the weapons fire! Sheepishly, Kayliss met Faith's eyes. Faith grinned, rising and offering a hand to Nya, sheltering beside her. Pulling her up, she ignored the other woman's thanks, sauntering towards Kayliss.

"Not exactly what I imagined but good job," she said to both Kayliss and Mallie. "Disarming them was a good idea." She turned to Jonas eagerly, "How'd we do?"

"Eight minutes, fifty-two seconds," Jonas announced, checking his Tau'ri watch.

Faith's face fell. Kayliss, who'd been dreamily contemplating a long hot shower, felt her dreams disappear down the drain. She just knew that Faith was going to order them to do it again. She felt Faith glance at her and schooled her face into neutrality. If Faith wanted them to do it again to improve their time then she would!

"What time is it?" Faith asked Jonas.

"Almost ten," he told her.

"Okay," said Faith, raising her voice. "Everyone hit the showers and then report back to the mess. And you have **no** idea how wicked cool it is to be able to say that at last. Thank God for indoor plumbing."

"Why would we thank the Goa'uld?" asked Mallie.

"Different God," Faith told her. "And we are so not having that discussion. Religion is not my strong point."

"You don't want to do it again?" Kayliss asked Faith, confused as to why she hadn't ordered them back to the beginning.

"Nya, Kay an' you need to recover first," Faith told her quietly as the others headed back to the base, chattering loudly as Jem led the way. Jonas stayed with them, ostensibly tidying up, although the crates were far too heavy for him to lift. "Maybe we can squeeze in another go-round before bed."

"I feel fine!" Kayliss insisted even though every inch of her skin prickled uncomfortably and her vision was still only available in black-and-white.

"Sure," Faith said sceptically. "Look Li-Kayli-"

"Call me Liss," Kayliss interrupted her unexpectedly, the words tumbling from her lips.

"What?" Faith stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Call me Liss," Kayliss repeated with a blush, shifting her weight awkwardly.

"After all the bitching..." said Faith. "Why?"

"Earlier," Kayliss told her. "Kay got hit after you called my full name. You were right. It is a distraction."

Faith's mouth opened and then shut again. "Oh-kay," she said. "Liss."

Liss caught her eye and suddenly the two slayers were grinning at each other, finally in perfect understanding.

"I'm gonna head back," Faith told Liss. "You comin' with?"

Liss shook her head, "I'm going to put these crates back first. I won't be long."

Faith grinned at her, shooting a sidelong glance at Jonas as he struggled to shove a crate across the floor with his shoulder. Liss blushed faintly and glared at her.

"See you Jonas!" Faith called.

His foot slipped and he started to fall, catching himself on the crate with a hand and pushing himself upright. "You're off?" he puffed with a frown.

"Yeah," Faith told him. "Gonna hit the showers."

"See you back there," said Jonas, turning back to the crate he was struggling to move.

Liss exchanged a look with Faith as the Tau'ri woman disappeared in the direction of the base and Liss hurried to help Jonas. He was going to give himself a hernia!

"I'll do it," she said, reaching him.

"No," he grunted, red-faced. "I'm good. You grab one of the others."

Liss rolled her eyes. Men! "At least try a smaller box."

Jonas waved her away as the crate slowly slid forward. With a sigh, Liss started moving the rest of the crates back through the hole she and the others had created. By the time she had finished, Jonas had managed to move his crate right up to the blockade.

"You finished?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he gasped, sliding down to the floor, uncaring that it was covered in sewage.

Liss tossed the crate through the hole and helped him through. Settling him down on a crate with his back to the wall, she began the task of reconstructing the barrier. Jonas watched her as she worked quickly and efficiently, moving crates with superhuman strength. No, he reminded himself. Not superhuman... supernatural. Liss was a Slayer, something which had previously thought to be a myth. Looking back with hindsight though, he couldn't believe that he had missed the signs. He should have remembered the legend of the Slayer back when Liss had first confided in him. She had shown all of the symptoms. But he had been convinced that she was a hok'taur, and so was she in a way. So convinced that the normally rational Liss remained sceptical about the existence of slayers, even when confronted with the evidence of four other women with the exact same powers,

"What's it like being so strong?" he asked her on a whim.

Liss frowned. He'd never asked that before. They'd measured exactly how strong she was, not without some difficulty but he'd never asked what it was like before. She struggled to think of a way to explain it.

"You know how delicately you handle naquada when you're refining it?" she said finally. "I have to be like that with everything, and everyone." That wasn't true anymore, she suddenly realised, "Except Faith and the others."

"You did well," Jonas told her, gesturing around them and Liss grinned, feeling a warm glow fill her with his praise. "Jem and I didn't think you'd get through it in under ten minutes." He chuckled slightly, "Jem and I."

Liss frowned, "What's so funny about you and Jem?"

"Jem and I sounds like Gemini," Jonas explained. "It's a Tau'ri name for a constellation and anyone born at a certain time of the year."

"They're all called Gemini?" Liss asked, confused. She'd never heard him mention anyone called Gemini before.

Jonas laughed, "No. They're Gemini's. The Tau'ri use the movements of the planets in their solar system and a person's date of birth to predict their future."

"That sounds... inaccurate," said Liss. She stepped back from the wall of crates, dusting off her hands, "I think we're done here. Shall we shower?" Instantly realising what she had said, Liss blushed a fierce scarlet. "I-I didn't mean..." she managed to say.

"I know what you meant," Jonas told her with a grin, amused by her innocence. He jumped off the crate he had been sitting on, "Come on, Liss. Let's go."

**l**

Parking his car near the entrance to Evergreen Cemetery, Cam was surprised to see three people already waiting for him, despite the fact that he was early. Stopping the Mustang's engine and grabbing his jacket, he hopped out of the car.

"Jackson!" he called over the roof, shrugging into the leather coat. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Vala talked me into it," Daniel explained, pushing his glasses up with one hand and keeping the other firmly jammed in his pocket. He shrugged, returning his hand to his pocket.

"Well to be fair, darling, you didn't resist very hard," said Vala, slipping her arm through his and batting her eyelashes at him outrageously.

"Someone needed to give you a lift," Daniel countered, pulling his hand out of his pocket and untangling his arm from hers.

"We expecting Sam and T-**Murray** too?" Cam asked with a lopsided grin at their antics.

"Just Andrew and Oz," Doctor Wilson told him.

Jackson's head whipped round so that he could stare at the red-haired doctor, "Jon's not coming?"

"Not tonight," she said distantly, cocking her head to one side. "Here they come."

"You can hear them?" Vala asked in disbelief. She couldn't even see approaching headlights yet!

"I can hear Oz's truck," Jool corrected her as twin lights appeared in the distance.

Sure enough, it was a black truck that pulled up behind Cam's Mustang moments later. Before the engine died, the passenger door opened and Andrew jumped out, carrying an axe almost as big as himself. Jool tutted and grabbed it off him.

"Hey!" Andrew protested.

"You can barely carry it," Jool told him, unbuckling her sword belt. "Take my sword instead."

Andrew pouted and then took the sword she was offering. Pulling it out of its sheath, he waved it around, getting a feel for its perfect balance and forcing Jool to jump back, revealing Daniel and Vala.

"Oh my God!" Andrew squeaked, forgetting the shiny sword. "Doctor Jackson's coming too? This is so cool!"

"Hey," Oz joined the conversation, nodding to Cam and Daniel.

"Hey," Cam replied as Daniel nodded back.

"Is this the first time you've been Slaying?" Andrew asked Daniel enthusiastically.

Daniel blinked at him, unsure how to respond to such excitement. "Not exactly," he said, remembering London and LA.

"Me neither," Cam told Andrew as Doctor Wilson climbed into the back of the truck. "Vala's the only virgin here."

"Hardly," said Vala with an amused smirk as Daniel snorted in derision.

"It's your first time?" Andrew asked Vala excitedly. "It's so cool! I remember my first time Slaying..."

"Who wants the water gun filled with holy water?" Jool interrupted him, holding the bright moulded plastic high in the air.

"Ooh, me!" Vala quickly claimed it. "What does it do?"

"Burns Vampyres like acid," Andrew informed her earnestly as she took the weapon from Jool. Vala looked at the strange gun with more respect.

"Vam**pires**," Oz corrected him. "Don't embarrass me dude."

"I've got crosses and stakes," Jool said, rummaging through the collection of weapons in the back of Oz's trunk. "Ooh! You brought a spare sword. Anyone want it?"

Cam quickly looked around the blank faces surrounding him. Only Andrew seemed about to claim the sword and as he already had one, Cam felt no regrets about putting in his own claim. Preferably before Wells beat him to it.

"I'll take it," he said, moving forward.

"I was just gonna say that!" Wells pouted.

"You've already got a sword," Doctor Wilson told him, handing Cam the sword.

She began to hand out the crosses and stakes to everyone. Cam noticed that Vala took one of each and then had difficulty deciding where to put everything. In contrast, Oz took nothing. Cam guessed that he already had his weapons of choice. Or maybe he was the weapon. Cam knew that the werewolf was supposed to be able to control his transformation. There were plenty of stakes to go around, and once everyone was armed, with the exception of Oz, the large group moved towards the cemetery entrance.

"How do you want to play this?" Cam overheard Osbourne ask Wilson.

"It's Vala's first time," she replied just as quietly. "So we'll stick together, investigate the two recent burials and sweep the cemetery before we head over to Fairview."

"So where's Jon tonight?" Jackson asked them casually as Osbourne nodded his agreement with her plan. Too casually. Cam narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. Just why was Jackson here anyway? Any one of them could have given the girls a ride.

"Busy," Osbourne told him shortly.

Wilson spoke at the same time, "He had a prior engagement."

"He's training with Teal'c," Andrew elaborated for them, causing Doctor Wilson to scowl fiercely at him.

"I didn't know he still trained with Murray," Jackson said invitingly, using Teal'c's cover name while they were outside the SGC.

"Oh, yeah," Andrew told him blithely. "Every week."

"Andrew..." Wilson warned him.

"Shut up," added Osbourne.

"What did I say?" Andrew asked plaintively, his expression wounded. He looked like a puppy that had just been kicked, thought Cam. Wounded, guilty and pleading for forgiveness.

"Just shut up," Doctor Wilson told him, walking silently through the graveyard.

"But we were just talking," Jackson objected.

"Yeah," Wilson said sceptically. "Of course you were."

"They were!" Vala jumped into the brewing argument with both feet, intent on defending Jackson.

"About Jon," said Osbourne, coming to a halt near a recent grave, the ground flat and newly turfed.

"Where's the harm in that?" asked Vala.

"Look," said Jackson as Vala received twin glares from Osbourne and Wilson. They transferred those glares to him as he spoke. "Jon's my friend," he said and a very unladylike snort came from Julie Wilson. "Is it so wrong for me to be worried about him?" He sighed, "Don't stand on the graves, Vala," he admonished without turning around. "It's disrespectful. Jon might-"

A hand broke free of the ground beneath Vala's feet, grabbing hold of Vala's ankle. She screamed.


	22. Bluff and Doublebluff

**A/N**

Huge thanks go out to Sithspit, who very kindly betaed Jonas' final scenes for me and parts of the next chapter to come. He's been absolutely brilliant and a wonderful font of information.

Enjoy

**Bluff and Doublebluff**

A hand broke free of the ground beneath Vala's feet. Encrusted with dirt, it grabbed hold of her ankle. Vala screamed. Daniel lunged for her, catching hold of her as she lurched forward to escape, nearly falling, and trying to pull her free. Their efforts only helped the vampire to dig his way out of his grave. Cam fumbled for his stake as Wilson stepped forward, between him and the vampire. Her arm moved and he heard the rushing sound he associated with a vampire turning into dust.

With the force holding on to Vala removed, Daniel toppled under the sudden weight, falling backwards on to the gravel path. His glasses were knocked off his face with the impact and he grunted as Vala landed on top of him, her elbow finding his gut with unerring accuracy.

"You okay?" Vala asked him as she lay sprawled on him.

"Yeah," Daniel choked out. "You?

Vala nodded, "Thank you."

"Do you need a moment?" the acerbic voice came from above them and Daniel squinted at the face floating over them, pulling Julie Wilson into focus.

"Do we, darling?" Vala purred from her position on top of him and Daniel felt himself stir.

"We're good," he said, more harshly than he'd intended and Vala's face fell as Doctor Wilson helped her up off him.

It was her knee that hit his stomach this time and he wheezed as all of the air was driven out of his lungs, rolling onto his side to search for his missing glasses. A hand with black fingernails extended itself into his field of vision, offering him his glasses. Gratefully, Daniel reached out and took them, putting them on to look up at the turquoise-haired man standing before him.

"Thanks," he said, accepting the hand that Daniel Osbourne kept extended and using it to pull himself to his feet.

"You might think you're the Captain's friend," Wilson said to Jackson once he was on his feet, resuming the argument the vampire had interrupted, "But he doesn't seem to feel the same way." Cam's teammate opened his mouth to say something but Wilson kept right on talking, "I don't know what happened between you three years ago, none of us do," she said, glancing round her teammates for confirmation. Wells nodded energetically. "The Captain'll tell us when he's ready. Because we're his team. You remember what it was like to be on his team?"

"I do," Jackson replied sombrely, both hands jammed in his pockets and a frown on his face as he listened to the red-haired woman talk.

"Then you know why we can't help you," Osbourne said to him. "If you try to make us choose between him and you, we'll pick him."

"Every time," Wells piped up loyally.

"This isn't about sides," Jackson told them exasperatedly. "This is simply about getting him to stay in the same room as me for long enough to tell him my side of the story!"

"Good luck with that," Wilson said dryly. "Just don't expect us to get in the middle."

"But," Jackson objected.

"Dude," Osbourne interrupted him firmly. "Drop it."

"But..." said Jackson.

"Jackson!" Cam snapped, getting his team-member's attention. Sometimes the archaeologist just didn't know when to quit. "Drop it."

Jackson sighed and subsided into silence, wrapping his arms loosely around his chest and staring at his feet with a scowl as the group continued their patrol of the cemetery. Vala walked close to him, offering him her silent support. Cam trailed at the back with Osbourne while Wilson took point, Wells by her side. Cam was too far back to hear the quiet conversation they were having, but he thought that perhaps Osbourne, with his supernatural hearing could. Every now and then he would nod his head as though he agreed with something that was being said. Eventually he caught Cam looking at him as he nodded and he abruptly stopped, looking vaguely embarrassed. It was kinda hard to tell... Cam was beginning to realise that the werewolf was every bit as stoic as Teal'c. They walked in an awkward silence for a few moments more before Osbourne spoke.

"Nice night."

"Yeah," Cam agreed with him immediately and then found himself at a loss for what to say next. "Come here often?"

"Couple of times a week," Osbourne told him. "Should be every night but Jool lives too far out of town."

"How's she doing with her driving lessons?" Cam asked curiously, remembering the tales of the one and only time the slayer had been permitted to drive on the base.

"Not bad!" she called back from the front of the group as Osbourne grimaced. Cam grinned at him.

"We could probably organise a driver to pick you up for work and drop you off every day if you wanted," Cam offered, not bothering to raise his voice if she could hear him without any problems. He didn't want to advertise their presence.

Wilson slowed down, allowing the strung out group to bunch up. "I wouldn't want to put anyone out," she said vaguely.

"It's their job," Cam explained patiently.

"Yeah, but..." she said and unexpectedly stopped talking and walking.

"Vampire?" Wells asked excitedly as Osbourne sniffed.

"Three," Wilson replied quietly. "One master, two minions."

"They're waiting for another one to rise," Osbourne supplied the information, his head cocked slightly to one side and his eyes distant.

"What's the plan?" Cam asked Wilson.

"No point using bait," she told him. "They're too focussed. We're better off taking them by surprise while they're distracted. I'll take the master; the minions should be easy pickings once he's gone. Everyone got their stakes?"

There was a general yet quiet chorus of agreement and Doctor Wilson took point, leading them off the gravel path and onto the soft grass verge, towards a small group of trees. Silently, she ghosted through the trees and Cam wished that he possessed her ability. In the dark it was difficult to see where he was putting his feet. They were close to the vampires; he couldn't see them yet but he could hear their voices floating on the still night.

"How much longer are we going to wait?" a male voice whined.

"As long as it takes," another, deeper, voice snapped.

A loud crack echoed around them as Vala stepped on a fallen branch. Cam held his breath, glaring at her.

She froze, looking sheepish as she silently mouthed, "Sorry!"

"What was that?" a third voice asked. It was a female this time, her voice soft and throaty and her accent local.

"So I said to her," Wilson said loudly in a terrible American accent as she strode forward, no longer bothering to conceal her approach. "Honey, I don't care what you say, it just ain't wicca if you ain't skyclad."

Wells choked as they all trailed after her into the open. Three vampires glared at them. The woman, a buxom blonde, was the closest to them, standing at the foot of the grave, while the two men, one large and one slight, were glaring at each other across it. Wilson gave an imaginative start, pretending to be surprised to find the area already occupied.

"Aw, gee," she said. "I guess this site's already taken. C'mon guys, let's go find somewhere else to do the ritual."

"Shucks," contributed Cam, trying very hard to keep the grin off his face, and failing miserably. Jackson snorted, hastily turning it into a cough.

"Who are you?" demanded the thin male vampire, his voice deep for someone of his size.

"Colorado Springs College wicca group," Wilson lied convincingly, even though her attempt at an American accent sounded more like a drunk Texan Canadian. She casually wandered closer to the vampire as she asked him, "Who're you? I didn't know there was another coven that used this cemetery."

"There isn't," the woman snarled pointedly.

"Mary-Sue!" snapped the male vampire. "Silence." He turned back to Wilson as the female vampire pouted grouchily. "We're new," he told her with a toothy smile. "Just started."

"Oh cool!" Wilson gushed. "What tradition do you follow? We're – Oh my Gawd! Is that a hand?"

She dropped the American accent at the end, Cam noticed, but the effect of her exclamation on the vampires was electrifying. Instantly, all three turned to look at the grave. Wilson hefted her battleaxe and swung, cleaving the male vampire's head from his neck while he was still distracted. He exploded into dust.

"You killed Manuel!" the other male exclaimed as his ashes settled on the grave.

Cam realised that there really was another vampire clawing his way out of it. Only his arms, head and shoulders were exposed so far and there was still the female between him and the newly-risen vampire, who was looking around with some confusion. The male vampire roared and leapt at Wilson while the female advanced on them. To Cam's surprise, Wells was the first to confront her. She backhanded him out of the way as Wilson began to defend herself against the male. He was quick for someone of his height and size, but she was quicker, practically dancing around him as Jackson stepped in front of Vala with his cross outstretched.

The blonde hissed and shied away from them, closer to Osbourne and Cam. Cam tightened his grip on his stake as, beside him, Osbourne _growled_. She hesitated, looking between the two groups and then back over her shoulder. Cam followed her gaze to Wilson, whose opponent was bleeding slowly from several large gouges but still continuing to fight hard enough to prevent her from beheading him or getting close enough to stab him in the heart with the stake she held in her other hand. Vala squirted her water gun at the female vampire, hitting her squarely in the chest. Smoke curled up from the wet patch on her clothes and a horrible burning smell came to Cam's nose.

Shrieking in pain, Mary-Sue ran. Wilson planted her foot squarely in the male's chest, sending him staggering back. Turning, she flung her stake after the blonde, carrying her spin around a full three-sixty and timing it just right to meet the male's charge with her axe, slicing through his neck. He exploded a split second after Mary-Sue.

Wilson discarded her axe as she approached the vampire still stuck in the ground. Tossing it out of his reach, she grabbed his arms, pulling them back behind him and planting her knee firmly in between his shoulderblades so that his chest was exposed. Immediately, the vampire shifted into his human face, his fangs and distorted forehead disappearing.

"Want to stake your first vampire?" Wilson asked Vala.

Vala glanced uncertainly at Jackson as she hesitantly moved forward. He nodded reassuringly at her and she approached the vampire pinned by the slayer.

"What's happening?" the vampire asked, looking helpless and confused.

Vala stared at the human-looking man half-buried in the grave in front of her. "Are you sure he's a vampire?" she asked Wilson, fingering her stake tentatively.

"I'm a vampire?" exclaimed the vampire.

"Trust me," said Wilson. "He's a vampire."

Vala still hesitated, clearly thrown by the vampire's all too human face. "I can't," she said finally.

Wilson released the vampire. He exploded up out of the ground, lunging at Vala. Both Cam and Jackson leapt forward, trying to stop him but Wilson got there first, grabbing the vampire by the hair on the back of his head and pulling him back. The vampire hissed around his fangs, still trying to reach Vala. Without hesitating, the alien woman stepped forward, plunging her stake in the vampire's chest with one smooth movement. The vampire exploded into dust and Vala stumbled back, coughing.

"Nice job," Wilson complimented. "Next time, don't leave your stake in his chest."

"We lose a lot of stakes that way," Wells commented, nodding wisely.

"You mean, _you_ do," Wilson said pointedly to him, easing the sting of her words with a slight smile.

"Now do you believe in vampires?" Jackson asked Vala.

Vala nodded slowly, her round eyes still fixed on the spot where the vampire she had staked had stood.

"Come on," said Wilson, picking up her axe. "We've still got the rest of the cemetery to patrol before we move on to the next."

Vala clapped her hands excitedly, "Oh goodie!" she said. "Daniel, darling, I don't suppose I could borrow your stake?" she smiled sweetly at him.

Daniel sighed, hanging his head, "Sure."

**l**

"Morning."

Jool looked up from her large fried breakfast at the greeting, smiling up at the young Captain standing in front of her, clutching his own tray of food.

"Morning," she replied. "Eating in public today?"

Jon shrugged. "Didn't want to miss the pancakes," he said, sitting down at the table.

"Plus the fact that Doctor Jackson's running late this morning couldn't have hurt," the Doc said pointedly with a smile.

"He is?" Jon said innocently. "You don't say?"

The Doc sighed, fighting a smile. "You're going to have to talk to him sooner or later," she told him with more than a hint of exasperation.

"I prefer never," Jon told her. "So, how was the show and tell? Did Vala scream? She didn't say."

"She screamed," admitted the Doc.

"Ha!" said Jon. "That's five bucks you owe me."

"I never took that bet," she protested.

"Yeah you did," Jon told her.

"No, I didn't."

"Did."

"We never shook on it!"

"Did too."

"Ooh!" the Doc exclaimed frustratedly. "Did not!"

"Did."

**l**

Cam's footsteps were light as he walked quickly through the SGC hallways. After he'd dropped Vala and Doctor Wilson (who had insisted that he call her Jool) back at the mountain last night, he'd driven straight home, only stopping to take off his boots before he fell into bed and into a deep and dreamless sleep. For the first time in ages, his alarm clock had woken him up. He figured he was entitled to a little spring in his step.

Now, reaching his destination, he stopped and knocked on the open door. Inside the cluttered office, Jackson looked up from the large book he was reading, the pen in his hand resting on a pad of paper, ready to take notes.

"Hey," the founding member of SG-1 greeted absently, looking straight back down at the book.

"Hey," Cam replied. "You got a minute?"

Jackson looked back up, surprise etched on his face. "Sure," he said. "What's up?"

"It's about O'Neil," Cam told him, shutting the door.

"Ah," said Jackson, leaning back in his chair. "Which one exactly?" he asked wryly. Cam stared at him pointedly and Jackson sighed. "What about him?" he asked, hanging his head.

"Back off," Cam recommended sharply and Jackson's head snapped back up, glaring at Cam. "Let him come to you."

"You don't understand!" Jackson told him.

"I don't want to," Cam said quietly. "That's between you and him. What concerns me is the fact that you're jeopardising his cover."

"What?" asked Jackson, his gaze narrowing.

"By singling him out you risk drawing attention to him," Cam told him reasonably. "We've already got Ba'al taking an interest in him, what happens when he finds out that he's General O'Neil's clone?"

"He won't," Jackson said stubbornly.

"He might," Cam said roughly. "He controls the Trust. If they get even a _hint_ of who he really is..."

"So what do you want me to do?" Jackson asked. "Go back to ignoring him?"

"It didn't seem to bother you before P3X-859," Cam said pointedly.

"I didn't find out he was here until I got back from Camelot," Jackson defended himself. "And I couldn't very well show an interest in him without making you and Vala suspicious!"

"So what's changed?" asked Cam. He sighed, "Look, I'm not saying ignore him completely. Just back off. Give him some space. And _don't_, whatever you do, force a confrontation on the base. If he's the man I think he is, he'll come to you."

Daniel wasn't so sure. Jon seemed pretty upset and he didn't blame him. If their situations had been reversed and Jack had behaved the same way... Well, Jack would have been bound to behave the same way, he just wasn't so eager to overlook the same fault in others. But Daniel would have been hurt by his rejection, just as Jon must have been hurt by Daniel's actions.

He knew that nothing could excuse the way he had treated Jon after he had left the SGC but he had been unable to visit him without risking drawing the NID's attention to him. Their telephone conversations had been painful to say the least, with Jon desperate for any scrap of news Daniel could give him and Daniel unable to divulge classified information. Worse, after each call, Jon would pull some stunt or start a fight at school and his grades would take a nosedive. Eventually Daniel had stopped calling.

It wasn't like Jon couldn't have called him! And they had been busy with the Goa'uld and the Replicators and then Teal'c had announced his intention to return to the Jaffa, Sam had requested a transfer to Area 51 to be closer to Cassie at college, Jack had been transferred to Washington and Daniel had been the only member of SG-1 left. He'd jumped at the chance to go to Atlantis and hadn't even thought about calling Jon to tell him. He couldn't have told him anything anyway. They hadn't even found Atlantis when Jack was cloned.

"Can you do that?" Mitchell asked him persistantly.

"Yeah," Daniel replied with a sigh, taking off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I can."

"Great," said Mitchell, standing. "See you at the briefing?"

"Sure," Daniel said absently, his glasses back in place as he stared down at his book, not seeing a word.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that he looked up, a puzzled frown on his face. "What briefing?" he asked the empty room.

**l**

Faith studied her opponents carefully, searching out their weaknesses, looking for the almost invisible tells that would tell her what they were thinking. Strategy was important; she had a reputation to uphold. At the end of the day, there could be only one winner.

"I'll raise," she said, tossing two coins onto the table.

"What does that mean again?" Nya asked anxiously, studying the cards she was awkwardly holding.

"She's opening the betting," Jonas informed her, his eyes resting on Faith as he tried to work out what she held in her hand.

"Is that good?" asked Nya.

"You tell me," Faith told her.

"My go, right?" Mallie, next to Faith, asked. "I check."

"You can't," said Faith.

"Not now Faith's opened the betting," Jonas explained. "You have to see her bet, raise or fold."

"Folding is when you give up?" Mallie checked. Jonas nodded. "Then I raise," she said, pushing the small pile of coins in front of her into the middle of the table and glancing triumphantly at Faith.

"You're going all in?" Faith asked her, her eyebrows raised high in surprise.

"Are you sure?" asked Jonas. "Once you're out..."

"I'm sure," Mallie told him firmly. She glanced at Kay, whose turn it was next.

"I fold," the older woman announced promptly, sitting back in her chair and surveying the small group with a smile. She approved of this game, she decided as Nya hesitated, dithering. It taught players both the value of strategy and the importance of luck. They'd need both to survive their assault on the Lithair Building.

"I see?" Nya said uncertainly.

"You want to keep playing?" Jonas asked her.

"Yes," Nya said definitely.

"Then you need to match Faith's bet," he told her.

"That's two of the shesh'ta," Mallie informed her helpfully. "Jonas?"

Jonas stared at Faith as Nya picked out two coins and added them to the growing pile in the middle of the table, trying to work out what she had in her hand. Faith met his gaze evenly, a small smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. Reaching a decision, Jonas tossed two of the coins Kay had provided into the pot. He sat back, convinced he had made the right decision and glanced at Liss.

"Can I raise?" she asked him.

"You can," he confirmed.

"Then I raise," she told them, adding three shesh'ta to the pile.

Jonas, dealing for Liss, discarded one card and then laid three out in front of him. Everyone craned their necks to see as he revealed a seven of diamonds, a queen of clubs and a two of clubs.

"I see your shesh'ta," Faith told Liss, adding another. "And raise you a Kelownan whatchamacallit."

"That's a grondel," Liss said as Faith tossed it into the middle.

"Whatever," Faith shrugged, unconcerned.

"What do I do?" Mallie asked.

"Nothing," Faith said to her. "You've bet all of your money."

"Can I get some back?" Mallie wanted to know.

"No," replied both Faith and Jonas at the same time. Mallie pouted.

"Can I fold now?" Nya asked plaintively.

"If you want to," Jonas told her. "I am." There were far too many people raising the pot for his liking. Odds were not on his side. He discarded one of the cards and then dealt another onto the table, a nine of hearts.

"I don't want to raise," said Liss, a frown on her forehead.

"Then call," Faith said simply.

"Fine," said Liss. "I call." She wasn't entirely certain what that meant but if it meant that she didn't have to raise or fold then that was what she wanted to do.

"Same," said Faith and Jonas dealt again, a queen of hearts this time. He looked at Liss.

"Still in," she informed him stubbornly. Faith simply tapped the table twice when Jonas looked her way.

"Okay," said Jonas, looking at Liss. "Turn your cards over."

Liss turned her cards over to reveal two sevens. Faith promptly picked up her cards and threw them face up onto the table, showing the others the two queens she was holding. Mallie groaned, revealing her ace and king of clubs to them. Grinning widely, Faith raked the pot towards her.

"What do I do now?" Mallie asked.

"Watch," Faith succinctly advised her.

**l**

It was difficult to maintain a polite smile in the face of Athena's sneering condescension but somehow Ba'al achieved it. All he had to do was imagine killing her in the slowest and most painful manner possible and keep the satisfaction those thoughts gave him off his face. He flipped through the pages of the files she had provided him as she droned on about Qetesh's betrayal.

Tiring of the revisiting of a common theme, Ba'al interrupted her, "I assume that you have already transmitted a report to-"

"To your creator?" Athena interrupted him in turn. She smirked at him, "Don't underestimate my intelligence."

"I assure you, that would be impossible," Ba'al said politely, delivering the insult with a perfectly straight face.

Athena preened, "I will of course, keep you informed of any further developments."

"Most kind," said Ba'al, terminating the connection before she worked out that she'd just been insulted.

Sitting down, he began to carefully read the transcript of Vala Mal Doran's night-time outing with half of SG-1 and three-quarters of SG-13, looking for any information that might relate to his own avenues of research. He would have to provide additional information to the Original if he wanted to stay in favour, and as quickly as possible. The little information that he managed to gather on SG-13 thus far would not be enough.

Only a few lines into the transcript, he stopped, having to reread the sentence several times before he could begin to believe what it said. Vampires? Creatures of Tau'ri fiction? What had they to do with the SGC? Flicking ahead, he read that the group had had a confrontation with the mythological creatures. Turning to the disc that had come with the file, he quickly accessed the video file of the surveillance that had been recorded, settling back to watch it with interest. Just how had Athena been taken in this time?

**l**

Tomin frowned when he entered Chaia's room. The small girl was nowhere to be seen. The door to the bathroom was open and he ducked his head inside to be sure she wasn't inside. She wasn't.

"Chaia?" he called. "Where are you?"

Listening, he could hear laboured breaths coming from beneath her bed. Kneeling down, he lifted up the rich covers and stared straight into the terrified girl's eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried for her.

"The stars disappeared!" she gasped and Tomin smiled in relief. Such a simple fear.

"It's alright," he told her gently. "It's called hyperspace. It's how the ship travels between worlds. You're quite safe."

"We're going to a different world?" Chaia asked curiously.

"Yes," Tomin nodded, smiling at her. "We'll be there in a couple of days." He hesitated before he mentioned something that he had been hoping to delay telling her, "When we get there, I will have to leave you."

"Will you come back?" asked Chaia, her bottom lip quivering and her eyes filling with tears.

"I will do my best," Tomin promised her.

"If you see my mummy, will you tell her that I love her?" Chaia asked him.

"If you will come out from under that bed and listen to how Hannor Mir learned to fly," bribed Tomin.

With a smile, Chaia allowed him to help her out.

**l**

Vala was alert for any sign of bright red hair as she walked through the SGC corridors. Having spent the morning asking Daniel questions about vampires and demons and slayers until he had thrown her out of his office, she'd spent the afternoon curled up in Andrew's office, listening to his stories about Sunnydale and Buffy Summers. Of course, the moment he had gone home for the day she had realised that he hadn't spoken one word about SG-13's reason for being here. Faith.

Hopefully Jool would tell her. Vala just had to find her. She wasn't in her room, or her office. She wasn't in the mess, or in the control room. She had to be somewhere, she lived on the base!

Vala was determined to find out as much as she could about the supernatural threat Earth faced. She'd made few trips to Earth's surface in her time at the SGC, and what she'd seen until last night had led her to believe that Earth was a paradise compared to the other planets that she'd visited in her life. A repressed paradise filled to the point of overcrowding with a culture that continued to confuse her, but a paradise nonetheless. Learning that it was secretly poised on the brink of hell and infested with demons had shaken her more than she would like to admit, even to herself. At least now she could begin to understand how the Tau'ri had managed to conceal the existence of the Stargate and the SGC from their populace for ten years.

Finally, she found Jool in the room next to the gym that was set aside for sparring. Her opponent was Teal'c. Watching them move with such rapidity and grace that she couldn't keep track of who was winning and who was losing, Vala forgot why she was there. Gradually, she began to realise that although Teal'c's style of fighting was superior to Jool's, her strength, speed and reflexes were greater than his, giving her the edge.

Now Vala understood how Jool had beaten Teal'c in their arm-wrestling contest.

**l**

The distant muffled sound of the explosions reached down into the sewers of the city where Jem was leading a large group of about twenty or so towards the Lithair Building. Hearing them, the group paused listening intently. Jonas checked his watch and smiled. Right on schedule.

Those with merely human hearing were unable to distinguish the sounds of fighting above, but the slayers could. Faith looked grim. Above them, people were fighting the Ori and dying while she skulked through sewers like a vampire. Logically, she knew that she was doing the right thing by not finding a way to the surface to help them, but a large part of her still wanted to fight beside the people of this planet as they put their lives on the line for her and her girls. Their sacrifice would be in vain if the slayers didn't get to the Stargate.

**l**

Jon juggled the two boxes of pizza as he rang the doorbell and waited impatiently. Footsteps approached on the other side of the door and the locks clicked back. The door swung open and Hank smiled at him. Jon felt the sense of dread he'd felt about this evening ease slightly.

"I bought pizza," he said, raising the boxes slightly into Hank field of vision.

"Come in," Hank invited genially, stepping back from the door. "Beer's in the fridge."

Happy as he was to hear that Hank had provided the beer he was unable to, Jon couldn't help the frown that crumpled his young forehead as he entered the house. "Never invite someone into your house," he warned, handing Hank the pizza boxes. "Might be a vampire."

"Isn't it too late if they're a vampire?" Hank asked as he closed the door, sniffing the pizza appreciatively.

"Vampires can only come into your home if you invite them," Jon informed him as Hank led the way into the living room, where a chess board was already set up, waiting for them.

"What about the SGC?" frowned Hank, concerned.

"The Watcher's Council Headquarters in London was also home to slayers," said Jon as he looked around Hank's living room. It was as bare as he remembered all of Hank's quarters being, with a couple of photos of Caroline and Kim and a few plants all that decorated the place. "The SGC's home to Teal'c and the Doc. And Vala. I think we're okay."

But what would happen when they moved out of the base, wondered Hank, setting the pizza down within easy reach of the chess board and disappearing into the kitchen to fetch the beer. And what about the rest of NORAD? He made a mental note to find out if any of their officers called NORAD home.

"So," he said as he appeared in the living room door, a beer in each hand. "You ready to lose?"

**l**

Adria knew what was happening as soon as the explosions began. Reaching out with her mind, she tried to stop the bombs, but there were too many and she was unable to prevent a sizeable portion of those in Kelowna and none at all in Andari. But then, neither the bombs nor the rioting populations were her primary concern. They were just a distraction. She did however, feel a grudging respect for Faith that she hadn't before.

Until now, Faith had eluded her more by luck than by any particular skill. But this? Organising an almost planet-wide revolt in the few short days Faith had been on Langara was nothing short of a miracle. Only Terania had remained faithful to Origin. Finally Adria understood why her Fathers were so insistent that she forget her mother and concentrate on gathering her Oriclave about her. If Faith and the few she had found so far were capable of this much destruction while still ignorant to the truth of Origin, imagine what they could do together once they had been enlightened!

These thoughts and more flowed through her more than human mind as the Orici moved serenely through the building while, all around her, Priors and soldiers were panicking. Praemas quickly found her and followed her footsteps as she found herself wondering if she had time to change into her battle armour before Faith attacked. Probably not, and now the rest of her Priors had found her, looking harried and flustered.

"Divine Orici," the most senior of her Priors here on Langara, Keman, greeted her with humble respect. "The populace is rioting. Our troops are overwhelmed. We must send more soldiers and Priors to support them."

"No," Adria overruled him. "We must not."

"But-" Keman protested.

"This is all happening as I foresaw," Adria lied to him. "Send additional troops if you must, but let them come from the ship, not from here. No Prior or soldier is permitted to leave the building. I have need of you here."

"What need?" demanded the most junior of the Priors assembled there, Fervas.

Adria eyed him with disfavour and the Priors closest to Fervas moved away from him, as though to distance themselves from her displeasure. Fervas gulped but stood his ground.

"Is it not enough that the Orici has expressed her desire to have you remain by her?" Praemas challenged him. "Is that not honour enough for you?"

"And if the inhabitants of this world succeed in their rejection of Origin?" Fervas demanded. "What then?"

"That is why I am here," Adria informed him. "To ensure that that will not happen and that _this_ building will not be overrun."

"You believe that they will attack us directly?" Keman asked her respectfully, clearly shaken by the thought.

Adria inclined her head, "That is why you must remain here."

**l**

Kay was just about to follow Liss into the small opening that Jem assured them led to the Lithair Building when the Langaran slayer began to back out. Grabbing the bag that was impeding her exit, Kay helped her out and Liss immediately turned to help Jonas.

"What's happening?" Kay asked and Liss shrugged.

"Don't know," Jonas gasped as he crawled backwards out of the hole. "The order came back to retreat."

Slowly, people began to trickle back out of the opening into the sewer tunnel, helped by those who had been waiting for their turn to follow them. Finally, Faith shoved her bag out of the tunnel, following it headfirst into the main sewers.

"What the problem?" Jonas asked her as she rolled smoothly to her feet.

"Adria's up there," Faith informed him bitterly. "With fuck knows how many Priors."

"What?"

"How do you know?"

"Adria!"

"What's she doing here?"

Four slayers spoke at once and Jonas winced at the noise levels they reached in the enclosed space. "A better question is what to we do now?" he said, instantly getting everyone's attention. He looked at Faith, "What do you want to do?"

"We cannot give up!" cried Mallie when Faith hesitated.

"I'm not gonna!" snapped Faith. "But walking into a fight against Adria, even when she doesn't know we know she's here, is an epically bad idea."

"Faith, this is the best chance we will get to reach the Stargate," Kay reminded her.

"I know," said Faith, frowning fiercely. "I'm thinking options."

"I say we go," contributed Liss as Jonas muttered into his radio, checking in with his men on the ground.

"Hey! This ain't a democracy," Faith informed her waspishly. "I say when we go."

"None of the Priors have come to the aid of the Ori soldiers," Jonas interrupted the brewing fight urgently. "They're all staying in the building."

"Great," sighed Faith. "I don't suppose we could reschedule the riot?"

"Not now we're committed..." Jonas said slowly. "But it might be possible to pull some of our people back for a second diversionary attack."

"Okay," said Faith. "New plan. We go up there and kick Ori ass while the J-man pulls out as many of his people as he can. We'll keep the riot bubbling nicely and see if we can't lure out any of the Prior's; _no_ breaking their staffs," she warned them all fiercely. "We like Kelowna. Let's not burn it down."

"_Burn it down_?" choked Liss.

"Last Prior we met, Faith broke his staff," Mallie quietly filled her in. "The whole town caught light." Liss gulped and privately vowed to never break a Prior's staff.

"Jonas," said Faith, turning to him. "I need you to contact the other country. Convince them to act like they've been beaten and withdraw. Then, when we start the second attack, they've gotta concentrate on the Ori's stockpile of naquada, convince them that that's our real target."

"Adria will assume that we're attempting to escape by ship," realised Kay, admiring Faith's strategy.

"Exactly," Faith grinned at her. "Jem! Don't run off just yet. If we've gotta keep this riot going all over the city, we're gonna need you to take us where we're most needed."

"Good luck," Jonas told them, wishing he could go with them.

"Thanks," said Faith. They were gonna need it.

"We'll go with you, sir," one of the soldiers Jonas had brought with him said.

"No," Jonas overruled them. "I can find my way back. You go with them. Stay in radio contact," he ordered, making sure his gaze took in all of them. Faith nodded solemnly and he turned to Liss, "Take care," he told her softly.

"You too," she said with a tremulous smile.

"Always," Jonas grinned at her. "See you back at the base!"

**l**

Despite the late hour Cam was restless, full of pent up energy he couldn't dispel no matter how much he paced. If this wide-eyed insomnia was the price he paid for getting a good night's sleep for once, he wished that he'd spent last night tossing and turning as usual. He couldn't go for a run, it was night-time, so he switched on his Playstation, settling himself in for a long night playing SOCOM3 before he passed out on the couch.

**l**

The slayers tore through the Ori soldiers with ease, obliterating the human followers of Origin. Using the extensive sewers, they were able to move quickly and efficiently around Kelowna, seemingly at random, appearing where the fighting was fiercest and to bolster morale in areas where it was flagging. Jonas monitored their situation over the radios while he attempted to convince the Andari to follow Faith's plan. Finally, he got them to agree to commit a third of their current forces and more if they could spare them, to a second attack on the target he had requested, in six hours time.

**l**

"Our men are being slaughtered out there!" cried Fervas. "We must do something to help them!"

There were mutterings of agreement with him but no-one else was brave enough to challenge the Orici directly. For her part, Adria kept her face carefully impassive for Fervas' outburst. He was not impressing her with his wisdom and loyalty. Mentally, she added another black mark against his name.

"My Oriclave is out there," she told the dissident calmly. Beside her, Praemas, more accustomed to her moods, took a careful half-step away from her. "They _will_ attack this building. Would you have me sap our strength to save the lives of a handful of soldiers who even now are ascending to the light? Do you think I do not feel each one's journey?"

"Why do your Oriclave oppose you?" Fervas continued to challenge her, although he sounded less certain of himself now. "Why have you not yet brought them into the light as was foretold?"

"You question the will of the Orici?" Praemas enquired, sounding mildly curious, as though contemplating the fate of an insect.

Fervas wilted under Praemas' scathing disinterest. Adria had suddenly had enough of the situation. She was perfectly capable of defending herself and it was time that everyone here was reminded of that fact.

"I tire of these games!" she exclaimed , flames flickering in her eyes. Her Priors flinched gratifyingly. "There are some I can spare from our defence," she continued in a musing tone. "Fervas, you may take one of your contemporaries, a platoon of soldiers from this building and as many as you please from the ship. You are to locate my Oriclave and inform me of their whereabouts immediately."

"You do not know it?" Fervas sounded surprised.

"Think of this," suggested Adria. "As a test of faith."

**l**

Faith was longing to stop for a moment and get her breath back. They had been switching between sewers and streets so much that she no longer had any idea where they were. All she knew was that there were Ori soldiers in front of her and that she'd been fighting for what felt like days. She couldn't show any sign of her fatigue. The others showed no signs of stopping any time soon and she didn't want to lose face in front of them so she pushed herself on, never knowing that her example was what was inspiring the other slayers to greater feats of endurance.

They'd lost Jonas' guards ages ago and now it was just the five of them versus what seemed like never-ending waves of soldiers while Jem waited in the sewers below for them to rejoin him. They still hadn't seen a Prior and Faith was beginning to wonder if her plan to lure them out and pick them off one by one would work. Or maybe it was, thought Faith as she caught sight of an unnaturally pale face at the back of the band of soldiers they were facing.

Shouting to Kay to cover her, Faith leapt out from behind the wall she had been hiding behind, aiming for a half-destroyed stall to one side of the road to get a better look at her opponent. Sure enough, it was a Prior, and it looked like the soldiers were bringing him up to speed. They needed to take him out before he could tell Adria where they were. She'd only get the one chance at this and she hoped like hell that her suspicions were correct, that she didn't miss, and that she'd get a chance to retrieve her knife. At least she'd taken a couple of spares from Jonas' armoury, so she wasn't risking her own beloved knife. Still, Faith hated to lose a good weapon...

Taking careful aim, she threw the knife at the Prior, not sticking around to see if she'd hit him or not. A wise decision as the stall was blown apart shortly after she threw herself over a stack of barrels to safety, landing on the ground with a thump and quickly scrabbling up.

"You got him!" Mallie crowed over the radios. "Right between the eyes!"

"Retreat and regroup," Faith ordered them. "Let's not celebrate 'til we've made it out."

"Roger that," replied Liss and the combination of the familiar Earth saying in this alien setting was jarring.

Looking around, Faith spotted a manhole not too far from her position and quickly made her way over to it, pulling the lid off with on hand and settling it back into place as she climbed down the ladder that had thoughtfully been provided with this entrance in to the sewers. She couldn't see any of the others down there and so she listened for them instead. Voices were coming from her left, so she followed the noise until she could distinguish words.

"We should go back up and look for her," Mallie was saying when Faith got within earshot of the group.

"No," said Kay. "We can't take the risk that Adria is up there. We shouldn't even still be here."

"But what about Faith?" asked Nya.

"There's a good chance that she made it down in the sewers, just into a different section," said Liss. "If we start moving, we might find her."

"Or, you make enough noise to wake the undead and she could find you," Faith pointed out, stepping out of the shadows.

"Faith!" exclaimed Mallie, bolting forward to hug her. Faith endured the embrace as best she could. "We were so worried!"

"Are you alright?" Kay asked Faith quietly, her intent eyes meeting the Tau'ri woman's.

"Five by five," Faith assured them with a grin as Mallie let her go. "Let's move before they figure out where we are."

"There're reports of another Prior in the warehouse district," Jem informed her as he led them down the passageway, back the way Faith had come.

"Lead on Macbeth!" Faith told him, clapping his shoulder.

"Isn't it McDuff?" asked Liss with a frown.

"You sure?" Faith asked suspiciously.

"No," Liss admitted.

"Then it's Macbeth," Faith ruled. To her surprise, she'd aced the GED she'd taken when she'd been prison and she was confident that she was right.

**l**

Adria grieved as she felt Fervas' passing. With his death, her Fathers' power was diminished. At least she was relieved of a thorn in her side and a possible traitor. Her Fathers would forgive her for ordering him to his death. Now all she could do was hope that the other Prior she had sent showed better judgement. Perhaps she had misjudged. Perhaps Faith's target was not the Stargate. No, she refused to believe that! She was the Orici. Infallible!

**l**

Jem led them directly out of the sewers into the smoking crater of a former Ori factory. The air was filled with the sounds of the pre-dawn chorus and weaponsfire. The multi-coloured light from energy weapons competed with the first streaks of dawn. Ordering Jem to stay behind as much to guard their means of escape as to protect him, Faith led the slayers up out of the ruins, towards the sound of fighting. They didn't have far to go.

The Ori, commanded by a Prior, were pressing the Kelownans back towards the crater, no doubt hoping to force them over the edge, gain the high ground and slaughter them all. Clearly they didn't know that the Kelownans would be able to escape down there. Faith wasn't sure the Kelownans knew it either. They were fighting desperately to keep from being pushed back any further.

"Let's get these people out of here!" she shouted to the others over the noise. "Mallie! Show them the entrance to the tunnels and get Jem to lead them to safety! We'll deal with the Prior!"

"But!" Mallie protested.

"Now!" Faith ordered.

The slayers broke cover, leaving Mallie behind as they sprinted towards the Kelownans, yelling at them to fall back as they attacked the Ori, taking them by surprise and successfully distracting them enough for the civilians to evacuate the area. Mallie sulked as she led the survivors to the sewers. She could hear the sounds of the others fighting the Ori and she longed to be with them. It was not fair! Faith should not have charged her with looking after the Kelownans, not when she could be of far more use to her helping to fight the Prior.

"Mallie!" exclaimed Jem as he spotted her. "What's happening."

"Faith wants us to get these people out of here," Mallie told him. She grinned as she suddenly got a great idea, "I don't suppose you know another way up there, do you?"

Faith was finding that killing the first Prior had been a lucky fluke. This Prior was taking no chances with his life and he was kicking their asses. He and his soldiers were keeping them on the run and unable to get close enough to engage them in hand-to-hand combat, always a slayer's speciality. Kay was down, knocked out by a piece of debris the Prior had sent her way. Liss had barely managed to get clear of the stone slab herself. And the itch under her skin was worsening, meaning that more Priors were on their way.

They had been fighting all night and were exhausted, while the Priors were coming into the fight fresh. But no-one had ever told her life was fair and she'd figured out early in her life when to cut her losses and run. She just hoped that Mallie had gotten the Kelownans to safety. Some of them had looked in pretty bad shape.

About to give the order to run, Faith was taken by surprise when the Ori soldiers began taking fire from behind. She wasn't nearly as surprised as the Prior though. Taking full advantage of the enemy's distraction, Faith broke cover as she headed towards the fight. She wasn't the only one, all of the slayers with her joined her, and Nya got to the Prior first.

Launching herself onto his back with a hideous screech while he was facing the other way, she clawed at his face with her fingers, leaving bloodless gouges on his already scarred face. The Prior's staff glowed and she was thrown off him by an invisible force. The fight was now a bloody melee and Faith struggled to reach the Prior before he could do any more damage.

To her surprise, _Mallie_ got to him first, attacking him in exactly the same manner as Nya, just minus the shrieking war cry. She leapt clear almost as soon as she had landed, kicking an Ori soldier in the head in mid-air on the way down and Faith wondered why. She didn't have long to wait to find out.

The Prior choked, clutching his throat with his hands. A pale blue fluid leaked through his fingers and he collapsed, disappearing from Faith's view. Faith shot her way through to the last spot where she had seen him and found him lying on his back, his lifeless eyes gazing dully up at the red sky.

"Listen up!" she bellowed and the fighting died down, although it didn't stop entirely. "More Priors are coming! Scatter!"

Just like that the fight was over, people running in all directions. The few remaining Ori soldiers still alive and conscious were barely capable of firing a few wild shots in a vain attempt to stop them. Faith found herself running with all of her slayers in the direction of the sewer, Mallie dragging Jem along with them so that they didn't leave him behind in their haste. Even so, they gained the crater just as two Priors arrived on the scene.

Scrambling down the hot slope, they raced into the sewers. Faith led them a long way into them before she finally began to slow, starting to feel safe. Harsh breaths echoed in the close confines and Faith wasn't sure that Jem was still conscious.

"He okay?" she asked Mallie, who was supporting his weight.

"M'fine," Jem slurred. "Jus' havin' a heart attack."

**l**

Adria stared out over the glowing city as the sun rose. But Kelowna did not glow in the light of the sun, which was almost entirely blocked out by the thick black smoke rising to the heavens, no, Kelowna was glowing by firelight. Buildings still burned fiercely and those who were in charge of extinguishing those fires couldn't handle all of them at once. The fire was spreading slowly but surely through the city like a fiery cancer.

Adria could have easily extinguished the fires with a single thought but she chose not to. Let those who had rejected Origin taste the flames. It would teach them a valuable lesson. Next time she would not be so benevolent. She would have to do something eventually however, if those fighting the fires proved so incompetent that the building she was in became threatened. Hopefully the fire would smoke Faith out from wherever she was hiding before that happened. Her soldiers were patrolling the streets, looking for her, even now.

Adria was not as confident in that possibility as she would have liked. There were too many variables where the Tau'ri woman was concerned that didn't add up. Like how she had managed to appear all over the city, disappearing almost as quickly as she had appeared before she turned up elsewhere. Or how she had murdered three of Adria's Priors. Most importantly, just who was shielding her from the will of the Ori?

Adria's Fathers would not be happy with the night's events and they would blame her. Worse than the deaths of the true believers was the loss of the confidence of the surviving Priors on Langara. Falsely believing that they would have been able to quell the rebellion had she allowed them to leave, they could not understand why she had acted as she had, for the good of the Ori.

If Faith was allowed to slip through their fingers once more then all those who had given their lives to prevent it would have done so in vain. Once she had assembled her Oriclave she would be invincible and their victory would be assured. More than that, she and her Fathers were convinced that Faith was planning something unusual. The fog that clouded her from them was far denser than usual. Recent events would indicate that their suspicions were well-founded.

Why had Faith not attacked this building? If she had the connections to organise a planet-wide revolt against Origin then surely she knew that the Stargate was within this building. How else could she escape this planet? The Priors here controlled the naquada supply strictly. Clearly not strictly enough, however, if the rebels could construct naquada bombs to use against them. She would have to have... words with them.

Adria smiled coldly. Finally, an excuse to put the Priors of this planet back in their rightful place. She couldn't wait to see them prostrated before her. Sweeping from the room, she went in search of Keman.

**l**

Ba'al reviewed the information his clone had sent him one more time. It was a pity he had been so diligent. Ba'al would find it difficult to reprimand him for not being the person to make the original discovery. Still, Ba'al chuckled to himself, no doubt he would contrive something suitably scathing and encouraging!

The information his clone had unearthed about the Watchers Council was troubling. With mentions of them spreading back through Tau'ri history, Ba'al was almost tempted to believe that they were under the control of a fellow Goa'uld. But his clone seemed convinced otherwise and Ba'al had to admit, they seemed to be in control of the superhuman girl they accompanied and no Goa'uld would permit that. Perhaps it was Tok'ra?

These mythological creatures his clone had told him about, vampires and werewolves, were clearly aliens who had taken refuge on Earth, living on the fringes of its society. Strange though, he mused, that he had never heard of an alien that turned to dust when it was killed. Ah, the galaxy was a strange and wondrous place!

Moving to a console, he recorded a terse message for his clone, instructing him to infiltrate the Watchers Council and congratulating him on his incompetence. He pressed the button that would transmit the message to Earth.

**l**

"Once the Andari have begun their attack, key members of the rebellion will march on the Lithair Building from various points in the city, demanding that the Priors give up Kelowna," Jonas explained the careful strategy he had spent most of the night setting up to Faith. "Hopefully convincing Adria that this is the diversionary attack. We'll attack when the protesters reach the Plaza."

"Assume that she doesn't fall for it," said Faith, her crossed legs dangling over an arm of the chair she was relaxing in. "What are we gonna be up against?"

"Adria," Jonas replied promptly. "You managed to kill two of her Priors tonight. As far as we're aware, that leaves her with another four still inside the Lithair Building. Even if she doesn't go to Andari, the amount of soldiers they've committed to their attack means that she'll have to take the threat seriously. She'll have to send some of her Priors over there. She's got hardly any soldiers left on the ground here or in Andari."

"But we don't know how many she's got onboard that ship," said Faith. "Or if there's any Priors up there."

"By the time we reach the Stargate, Adria should either be out facing the protesters or in Andari," Jonas told her. "Hopefully giving us enough breathing time to dial the 'Gate and get you out of here."

"What about you?" asked Faith. "Most of the men you were going to take with you were killed and the rest got the crap kicked out of them. Can't you just give me your GDO and code and stay here, where it's safe?"

"No," Jonas refused. "I told you. I plan to make sure you all get through the 'Gate. There's still plenty of people I can pick to take with me." What he wasn't telling her was that his best fighters would be mixed in with the mob in the Plaza with strict instructions. If Adria didn't go to Andari, the protest would become a riot.

"Have you even slept?" Faith demanded, still trying to make him change his mind.

"Have you?" countered Jonas.

Faith sighed, giving up. Jonas was exhausted, but so was she. "How much longer have we got?" she asked.

"Just over an hour," Jonas told her.

"Cool," said Faith, standing and stretching with a yawn. "Time for a shower and some coffee before I wake the girls. Hey! Is it 'Lead on Macbeth' or McDuff?"

"It's 'Lay on, McDuff'," answered Jonas.

"Huh."

Jonas' office door burst open without warning and both Faith and Jonas turned to meet the threat with weapons raised. The Kelownan woman who had so precipitously entered the office paled and cringed back against the wall, clutching a sheaf of papers to her chest. Jonas sighed, his face weary as he put away his handgun and beckoned the woman.

"What is it?" he asked and Faith watched the woman warily as she approached Jonas, handing him the papers.

"The fires have gone out," the woman told him. "All of them, at once!"

"Adria," said Faith, deactivating her zat.

"It looks as though you might be right," Jonas said grimly, skim-reading through the report he held.

"Great," Faith scowled. "That's all we need. A miracle."

**l**

Vala hated weekends. The three members of SG-1 that lived off-base didn't often come in at the weekends and when they did, they were more impatient with her than on weekdays. This weekend looked like it would be worse than usual. Muscles was busy training the SGC's latest recruits and Jool had put her name down for double shifts at the infirmary, leaving Vala to fend for herself against encroaching boredom. She was aimlessly wandering the corridors, idly considering dropping in on Muscles' training session and offering the recruits a few personal tips when a familiar blonde head caught her eye.

"Sam!" she called, hurrying to catch up with her. It was strange, but Sam seemed to speed up and Vala had to jog to narrow the distance between them. "Sam! Hey, Sam!"

"Oh, hi," said Sam as Vala reached her, stopping in the hallway.

"Hi," gasped Vala. "Didn't you hear me calling you?"

"No," said Sam, starting to walk again. She'd been thinking of a new piece of coding she'd thought of over breakfast.

"Where are you going?" asked Vala, keeping pace with her.

"Control room," Sam told her, hoping that Vala wouldn't bug her the whole time she was there. Didn't she have better things to do?

**l**

Adria was communing with her Fathers when they felt the first deaths, each one a spark of power lost to them. Langara was uprising again. By this time, the veil that hid Faith and the rest of Adria's Oriclave from them had extended itself to most of the planet. Adria's Fathers bent their will to it, seeking to pierce beyond it.

Adria opened her flaming eyes. She would find Faith and either capture or destroy her, and any who stood with her!

"Orici!" cried Keman, bursting into her opulent room. "The Andari are attacking the naquada stockpile!"

"I am aware of the situation," Adria said coldly, standing. "You and Lomar will lead our soldiers against them!" That should be more than sufficient to deal with the uprising here. It was the people she could feel converging on the centre of the city that were worrying her.

"While you remain here in safety?" shrieked Keman and the flames in Adria's eyes grew stronger.

"While I remain here to face my Oriclave!" she snapped. "You have your orders. I suggest that you be thankful I have sent you to a place of safety instead of questioning the will of the Ori!"

"And what if they are attempting to escape by ship?" Keman blustered. "Will Andari be as safe then?"

Adria paused, frowning. Cowardly though he was, Keman raised an excellent point. Faith might well be attempting to escape by ship. Adria had no way to know. Was it possible that the fierce fighting in Kelowna had been an attempt to fool her into thinking the Stargate was Faith real target? By ship, she would have had enough time to reach Andari by now.

"Take Demas with you as well if you feel you cannot perform your task with merely Lomar at your side," Adria told him. "But you will defend the naquada, do you understand me?"

Keman quailed beneath her fiery countenance, dropping to kneel on one knee before her, "Yes, Orici."

**l**

It was difficult to concentrate when Vala wouldn't leave her alone, thought Sam, repressing an impatient sigh. The probationary member of the SGC had been quick to inform her of Teal'c and Doctor Wilson's whereabouts and had swiftly moved on to a more important topic, herself. Right now, she was in the middle of telling Sam about a major heist she'd pulled off in her teens.

Sam frowned, shutting her out as she concentrated on the code she'd added, based on some of the additions Daniel Osbourne had made to the dialling program. Everything looked okay. All she needed to do was run it through the 'Gate simulator before she put it on the list of code to be added the next time the dialling program was updated. Sam pressed the button and the simulation loaded.

**l**

Jonas took just ten men with him this time. When they reached the large cess-tank beneath the Lithair Building, relieved that the knee-level sewage hadn't risen noticeably since her last visit, Faith was able to confirm that Adria was still in the building. Switching on his radio, Jonas was able to pass the information back to his troops on the ground and to the base. The base would relay it on to the Andari and were able to inform Jonas that three Priors had been positively identified amongst the multitude of Ori soldiers in Andari. Jonas requested radio silence, switching to an Earth-based frequency as Liss placed a small amount of explosives on the maintenance hatch leading up into the basement toilets.

Jamming his fingers in his ears, Jem huddled in a corner as he was instructed while the hatch was blown open. Faith strode to the hole, peering up into the room beyond and then jumped, catching hold of the edge and pulling herself up. Jem watched in admiration.

"Clear!" Faith called above them and Mallie was the next person up through the hole.

As soon as she was through, Faith's head and arm appeared and she grabbed hold of Jonas, pulling him up. Jem pushed his way through the crowd around the hole and had to jump to reach Faith's hand. She dragged him up and onto a tiled floor. Scrambling to his feet, Jem looked around.

Jonas and two of his men were waiting silently by the door Mallie had her ear pressed to while Faith pulled more men into the bathroom. The only sound in the room was quiet breathing as everyone waited for them all to be assembled. It didn't take long for Faith to help all of Jonas' men up and she didn't even look as though it had been an effort. Below, Kayliss and Kay were throwing their bags and weapons up through the hole and Faith was snatching them out of the air, distributing them out. Jem found himself with a semi-automatic gun to go with the various knives he already had stashed on him and then first Kay and then Kayliss were pulling themselves up into the room. Faith turned to Mallie.

"Clear," Mallie whispered, her shining hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.

"Let's go!" Faith ordered in a whisper and Mallie opened the door, peering through the crack before she slipped through, quickly followed by Faith.

Jonas grabbed Jem as he lined up with the others. "I want you to stay here," he said. "Cover our retreat."

"But-" Jem objected.

"It's an order, Jem," Jonas told him, letting go to get in line.

Jem sulked as everyone left. It wasn't fair! Why did he have to stay behind? Mallie was the same age as him and she got to go. Sure, she was as good at fighting as Kayliss, but Jem was at least as good as any of the men Jonas had taken with him to help him escape. He was certainly more willing to fight dirty. What if Jonas got hurt, or captured?

**l**

Adria stepped outside, facing the roaring mob with nothing but the two Priors flanking her. She searched the crowd for Faith's face as she held up her hands for silence. Where was she?

The crowd, thinner than it would have been before she extinguished the fires, faltered and quieted. There were still patches of shouting but they were willing to listen.

"Why do you reject Origin?" Adria asked them. "Why do you turn your faces from the shining example of your neighbours, the Teranians? There is a viper in your midst!"

The crowd muttered, unsure where she was going, but still listening.

**l**

"Adria's close," Faith whispered as she reached the ground floor.

She could hear Mallie relaying the information back but she ignored her, concentrating on remembering the blueprints of the building as she led them to the foyer. The most direct route would take them out to one side of the foyer, near the doors of the building, but Faith's slaydar heightened to the sensation of fire ants biting into her skin when she took that direction, so she led them on a more circuitous route that took them to the back of the room.

They met no-one in the hallways. The building was deserted and Faith's feeling of dread deepened. Where was everyone?

The Priors had set the Stargate facing the front of the building and the platform blocked their view of most of the room when they reached the foyer. Signalling the others to stay back, Faith ran silently forward to press against the back of the Stargate platform. Alert for any sign of the enemy, she sidled along the platform to the edge. Adria was close.

Peering around the corner, she pulled her head back quickly, her heart thumping. Fucking close! Adria was standing just the other side of the glass doors leading into the building, preaching to the crowd. Even before Caleb, Faith had hated preachers! All her life they'd told her that she was damned to hell and only they could save her... always for a price.

She needed to know where the Magic Mushroom, or DHD as Jonas had told her it was called, was. Easing around the corner, she crept forward to a place where she could see the rest of the room. It was empty and the DHD stood on the other side, completely exposed to the doors. If Adria or either of the two Priors turned around, whoever was dialling would be completely exposed. On the plus side, in front of her was a small closed-off reception desk with a waiting area.

She hurried back to the others, discovering that they'd moved up to the back of the platform while she'd been gone. In a whisper, she quickly told them what she'd found out.

"Jonas, you and your men stay here while I dial the 'Gate," she ordered. "When the 'Gate activates, enter your code and get the hell out of here."

"Can you remember the address?" Jonas asked her.

"Liss'll be with me to make sure I get it right," Faith told him. "Kay, I want you, Mallie and Nya to get to that reception desk and be ready to cover us when Adria notices what we're doing. The second Jonas yells that the iris is open, everyone hauls ass to the 'Gate, got it?"

"Got it," the four slayers replied.

"Let's go," said Faith, already moving.

Liss fell in beside her as she loped in a crouching run towards the DHD. Sheltering behind it, Faith looked over at the reception desk. The others had just reached it and she gave them a minute to get themselves behind it, glancing back the way the way she had come to see Jonas' head sticking around the 'Gate platform. He grinned, giving her the thumbs up and Faith couldn't help the answering grin that spread across her face as she returned the familiar gesture. She glanced over at the reception desk and then stood, keeping a wary eye on Adria as she hit the first symbol for Earth.

**l**

Outside, Adria sensed the Stargate's activation, faltering mid-sentence. Faith! Glancing over her shoulder she saw that she was right.

"Praemas," she said quietly as several people in the crowd spontaneously combusted.

He followed her gaze. "Yes, Orici," he said, bowing his head before he moved towards the door.

"The unbelievers among you have been consigned to the fires.," Adria announced, turning back to the crowd. "As I promised, the truth of Origin has rooted out the vipers that infested you."

"Wrap things up here," Adria told the other Prior, Pekal, quietly, her hand on his arm as she mentally instructed Demas and Lomar to gather as many soldiers as they could and return to Kelowna. "Then join us inside."

"As you wish," intoned Pekal, stepping forward.

**l**

Adria made them as soon as Faith started dialling but she kept on hitting buttons as Praemas strode towards the doors. She had just the point of origin to hit when Praemas entered the room, throwing her away from the DHD with a wave of his arm. Liss pressed it instead as Faith sailed backwards and the others opened fire, shattering the glass doors as Faith hit the wall but having no effect on Praemas. Liss hit the central button as Faith fell to the floor, pushing herself up as the Stargate activated.

**l**

"Unauthorised off-world activation!" Walter announced, hitting the iris pad as the Stargate bloomed into life.

Sam stood, abandoning her workstation to stand over his shoulder as the iris cycled shut over the event horizon, Vala beside her. Above them, General Landry clattered down the stairs as everyone in the room focused on the Stargate.

"Any idea who it is?" Landry asked halfway down the stairs.

"Receiving an IDC," Walter informed him. "It's Jonas Quinn's!"

"Jonas?" exclaimed Sam.

"Who's Jonas?" Vala asked her as General Landry ordered Walter to open the iris.

**l**

"You're good to go!" Jonas yelled as the green light on his GDO lit up.

As he'd instructed, the men with him began firing, covering the slayers retreat. Grateful for the distraction as Faith was as Adria stepped through the shattered door, she couldn't help wishing that Jonas had stuck to the plan and gotten the hell out. Bullets bounced!

"Hello Faith," Adria said calmly as the slayers ran for the 'Gate. "Leaving so soon?"

Faith threw a knife at her as she reached the foot of the steps leading up to the Stargate, Liss, Mallie and Nya just ahead of her, but it bounced straight off Adria's personal shield. Adria didn't even blink. In fact, she wasn't making any move to stop them and, after glancing at her, Praemas was following her lead. Faith frowned as she followed the others up the stairs. Adria was up to something.

She found out what when Nya, running at full speed, bounced off the Stargate, travelling a painful distance before she hit the ground, practically at Adria's feet, blood pouring from her nose. Faith skidded to a halt as Liss hit the invisible forceshield over the wormhole with less momentum, bouncing back to tumble down the stairs. Mallie managed to stop herself inches from the Stargate. Adria smiled at them.

"There's no escape," she said calmly, even though bullets were bouncing off both her and Praemas. She gestured and Jonas and his men were sent tumbling backwards. "You are destined to stand by my side. When I ascend, you will ascend with me, my handmaidens for all eternity."

"No offence," said Faith, cautiously making her way down the steps. "But that sounds like it sucks. I'll stick with the gig I've got, thanks."

"You persist in rejecting the truth of Origin," Adria said with an impatient sigh. "When you can see the will of the Ori at work before you."

"What are you talking about?" Faith asked, a sick feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

Adria gestured at the Stargate and Faith flinched, feeling stupid when nothing happened to her. "You have provided me with the means to defeat Earth," Adria informed her gently. "Truly you are worthy to be my Oriclave!"

"See there's just one problem with that..." said Faith, reaching for her knife and zat as gunfire started up again, hardly any of it directed at Adria or Praemas this time. "Over my dead body!"

**l**

"Okay..." said Vala, frowning as she popped her gum. "Where is he?"

"I don't know," Sam told her grimly, looking worried as she stared at the Stargate.

"We're not receiving any transmissions," Walter informed them.

**l**

Jonas' position had been overrun by a platoon of Ori soldiers. Now he and his men were retreating either side of the Stargate platform, back towards Adria and the slayers fighting her and her Prior. They weren't having much luck, finding it almost impossible to get close to either of them without being pushed back by their mental powers.

His radio crackled into life, "This is General Landry of the SGC. Please respond."

Jonas grinned, reaching for the radio. Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and spun around, rising into the air as Adria glared at him. Jonas tried to fight her hold on him but he was powerless to stop her as his radio was plucked from his chest, floating to Adria's waiting hand. She closed her fingers around it and crushed the small piece of plastic. Opening her hand, she let go of both Jonas and the useless pieces of his radio as Faith charged towards her.

Jonas' head hit the stone steps of the Stargate platform as he dropped and he had to shake his head to clear his vision. Blood trickled down the side of his face and he winced as he probed the small cut on his head. Pushing himself to his feet, he fired at the nearest Ori soldier and then adjusted his aim, hitting the soldier in the chest this time. He moved onto the next, still falling back. Faith flew past him, smashing into the coffee table in the small waiting area. Jonas sprinted over to her as she got to her knees, pushing her misshapen shoulder back into joint before she stood.

"You alright?" he yelled, taking cover behind the sofa and firing at the soldier.

"Five by five," she yelled back, throwing a knife at the Prior with the arm that hadn't just been dislocated. "Thought I told you to get outta here?"

The knife landed in the Prior's thigh and he howled, flinging an arm out and sending Faith back into the wall. Adria flung Liss away from her, into the steps of the Stargate, and turned to look back at her Prior as he pulled the knife from his thigh.

Mallie, Liss and Nya were disentangling themselves on the other side of the room and Kay was preoccupied, rescuing a small knot of his men from a group of Ori soldiers. Seeing his chance, Jonas ran forward, smashing the butt of his P-90 into the back of Adria's head.

The contact jarred his entire body, and Adria stumbled forward, clutching the back of her head. Unseen by anyone, the forcefield covering the Stargate flickered as it died. Praemas' staff flared and Jonas flew through the air, colliding into the reception desk. Faith winced as her superior hearing allowed her to hear his ribs break.

"Jonas!" cried Liss, firing bullets at the soldiers entering the room as she ran towards Adria.

**l**

Hastily typing on one of the consoles as she checked the Stargate readings for anything unusual, Sam missed Teal'c's arrival in the control room. The stoic Jaffa took in the situation in a glance. General Landry was attempting to contact whomever it was who had initiated contact and had been doing so for some for some time by the tone of his voice while Colonel Carter was busy at the station next to Walter. He approached Vala Mal Doran.

"What is occurring?" he asked her quietly.

"It's someone called Jonas Quinn," Vala Mal Doran told him with a shrug.

"He still hasn't contacted us or come through," Colonel Carter added. "In fact, _nothing_ was coming through until a second ago."

"So what's coming through now?" General Landry asked her.

"Just the normal emissions from a connecting wormhole, sir," Colonel Carter told him. "Nothing harmful or unusual. Still, it's strange that we weren't picking up anyth – Whoa!" she exclaimed as bolts of energy exited the Stargate, hitting the walls of the 'Gateroom.

"Close the iris!" ordered General Landry. Jonas Quinn's GDO would tell him that the iris was shut. If he was able, he could reinput his GDO code to request that it be opened again. Hank activated the PA system, "Defence teams to the 'Gateroom!"

"The iris will not close," Walter informed him, and Hank glanced grimly over at Sergeant Siler. The Sergeant left the room to attempt a manual override.

**l**

Things were not going well. Soldiers kept pouring into the room, from all three entrances now, and Faith and the others had to defend the front of the room, where Adria and Praemas were. Fortunately, the Prior they had left outside was still struggling to dispel the avidly watching crowd and Jonas's men, the six that were left of them, were forming a ragged protective circle around the slayers battling the Orici and Praemas. Unfortunately, Faith was fairly certain that another Prior had just arrived. She concentrated on fighting Praemas, Nya helping her as Mallie fought her way back into the circle and Kay and Liss took on Adria. Jonas for once was concentrating on the soldiers.

"Embrace the light of Origin in your heart and be reunited with your daughter," Praemas promised Nya as he blocked Faith's fist with his staff. "She still cries for you every night."

Nya screamed wordlessly as she barrelled into him, hitting, kicking and scratching at him. Praemas pushed against her, his staff flared and Nya headed head-first into the reception desk, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. Faith stabbed him in the arm.

Kay faced Adria alone, Liss having been thrown clear moments ago. Praemas' scream of pain distracted her and Adria batted her aside, turning to Faith as Kay skidded across the floor. Mallie fought desperately to reach Faith and help her but there were too many Ori soldiers between them. Adria gestured and Faith floated up into the air, grunting as she struggled against Adria. Nya hadn't moved since she'd hit the floor.

"Join me," Adria urged beguilingly. "Together, we will rule this galaxy and mine!"

"Lemme guess," croaked Faith. "You're my father?" Adria frowned and Praemas was forced to dodge a knife flung by Liss as she picked herself up off the floor that ricocheted off Adria. "Tell you what," Faith continued. "I'll do it for a pair of leather pants that fit and a crate of cigarettes. Oh! If you promise to _die_ first!"

Faith was pleased to regain enough control over her body to emphasise her speech by kicking Adria in the face. Adria staggered back and Faith dropped to the floor, smoothly rolling to her feet to face Praemas. Grinning evilly, she drew her knife.

"What was that you were saying 'bout Ny's kid?" she asked and Praemas gulped.

Liss dove for Adria's legs while Kay went for her torso. Together, they managed to wrestle the Orici to the ground before she threw them off her in opposite directions. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to get up before Jonas, swinging his rifle again, hit her in the face.

Faith felt like cheering him as he raised his gun for another blow, favouring his left side. She spotted the new Prior as he reached out and grabbed Jonas, his staff glowing as he lifted Jonas into the air. The rifle fell uselessly to the floor as Jonas choked, his face turning red as he clawed helplessly at his throat.

"Jonas!" cried Liss, changing direction to attack the newcomer.

Kay arrived to help Faith and Faith immediately abandoned her to face Praemas alone as Adria got to her feet. A well-timed kick sent the Orici staggering back as Liss reached the new Prior, ducking under his guard and burying her knife in his chin.

"No!" cried Adria as Jonas fell to the floor, coughing and clutching his ribs, and Liss yanked her knife back out.

The Prior fell to the ground and was still. Adria backhanded Faith and the force of the blow sent Faith flying as the Orici advanced on Liss. Jonas hauled himself to his feet and, limping, set off after her, his arm cradling his screaming ribs. Mallie finally fought her way out of the crowd at a point between Adria and Liss, heading towards the Orici. A wave of Adria's hand sent her back into the midst of the Ori soldiers.

Faith charged past Jonas as Adria reached Liss. Praemas' staff flared and she was flung awkwardly into the DHD, her head hitting the alien device with a dizzying crack. Kay renewed her efforts against him as Adria lifted Liss into the air.

"The penalty of killing one of my Priors is death," Adria informed Liss solemnly, coals of fire burning in her eyes. "Even for one of my Oriclave."

Jonas' fist slammed into her ear. Adria cried out, stumbling, and Liss fell to the ground. Adria whirled on Jonas in time for another fist to the face. Behind her, an Ori soldier in the doorway jerked as bullets struck him in the back, falling to the ground. Adria was ready for Jonas' next punch, grabbing hold of his arm and pulling his face forwards, into her fist. Releasing him as he reeled, Adria sent him flying with a gesture, turning back to the woman who had killed Lomar. She wasn't there.

Faith winced as she watched Jonas sail through the air towards the Stargate, holding her breath as she waited for him to bounce off Adria's forcefield. To her surprise, Jonas disappeared through the Stargate instead, leaving ripples behind him.

**l**

"What's wrong?" Vala asked Sam as the blonde Colonel's frown deepened.

"Incoming traveller!" Sam warned as the Stargate rippled.

The traveller exited roughly in the middle of the event horizon, hurtling backwards through the air. Wordless cries of surprise and alarm came from the observers in the control room as he headed towards them, hitting the glass window back first with a sickening thump.

"Holy Hannah!" exclaimed Sam, not the only person in the room to wince as the man fell.

"Medical team to the 'Gateroom!" Walter announced over the PA system. Sam bolted for the door, Teal'c and Vala just behind her.

"Get the iris closed!" General Landry ordered Walter as he hurried after them.

After an impatient wait for the Gateroom door to open, Sam pushed her way past the marines clustered around the crumpled heap on the floor below the control room, just as one of them gently rolled him back to expose his battered and familiar face.

"Jonas!" cried Sam, falling to her knees beside him and checking his neck for a pulse with fingers that trembled violently. His sightless eyes stared through her and she turned her head away, adjusting her fingers as she desperately searched in vain for signs of life.

"Sam..." Vala said gently, behind her. "I think he might be dead."


	23. Risk and Recovery

**A/N:**

This chapter is dedicated both dedicated and credited to Sithspit, who not only edited this chapter for me but also wrote a chunk of the first scene when I ran out of words. I literally couldn't have done it without him. Thank you!

My apologies go to everyone I left hanging onto the cliff-edge of last chapter. I promised in review replies to get this uploaded about a month ago but instead I moved. Finally! After three months of waiting for a date. Then Real Life decided to pull a fast one on me and put my brain through a blender while I was distracted by boxes. Having managed to reassemble it (somewhat) I've finally found the time to upload this chapter, which had been left to languish on my desktop since I moved. Bad news is, I probably won't find time to write the next chapter until after the New Year. Good news is, I tried not to end on a cliffhanger this time!

Enjoy!

**Risk and Recovery**

"Jonas!" cried Sam, falling to her knees beside him and checking his neck for a pulse with fingers that trembled violently. His sightless eyes stared through her and she turned her head away, adjusting her fingers as she desperately searched in vain for signs of life.

"Sam..." Vala said gently, behind her. "I think he might be dead."

Sam ignored her. Gently cradling Jonas' head to make sure she didn't jostle him too much, she gently pressed her thumbs down on his face, below his eyes, and using her thumbs, pulled his jaw open. Leaning over him, she placed her lips over his mouth, creating an airtight seal and breathed air into his lungs. After giving the first breath, Sam checked his pulse. Not finding one, she started compressions.

"Move it!" the crisp British voice came from the back of the crowd as Sam started CPR. "I'm a doctor! Let me through."

"Return to your positions!" snapped General Landry. "We've still got an incoming wormhole to worry about, people!"

The marines melted away and Jool joined Sam beside Jonas, running an experienced eye down his body, "What happened?"

"He exited the wormhole at high velocity, hitting the control room window and falling to the ground," Sam told her concisely as she pushed down on Jonas' chest. "One of the 'Gateroom team rolled him over before I could stop them."

"Great," said Jool in a tone that indicated that it was anything but as Sam stopped to breathe air into his lungs. Leaning forward, she ripped open Jonas' tunic, exposing extensive bruising on his chest. "There's more to it than that though." Jool said grimly as Sam worked, "Not all of these injuries are consistent with that type of impact. Did he land face first or...?"

"Back first," Sam told her between breaths and Jool winced.

"This guy went through the wars before he ever went through the wormhole," she commented, checking his eyes with the penlight she always carried in her pocket as Sam moved back to the chest compressions.

"His name's Jonas," Sam told her, fighting back tears as she willed Jonas to breathe.

"Jonas?" asked Jool, surprised. "Jonas Quinn?" The Langaran? What was he doing here?

Jonas gasped suddenly, sucking air into his lungs on his own. Sam immediately stopped what she was doing, leaning over him. Jonas looked around wildly, his gaze settling on Sam.

"Sam..." he rasped, struggling to breathe.

"Don't talk," Sam told him, grinning tremulously. "It's alright," she promised. "You're at the SGC. You're safe." Jonas' hand flopped by his side as he tried to lift it.

"Lie still," Jool cautioned him, shining her pen light in each of his eyes in turn. She frowned, going back to the first eye.

Jonas ignored her, looking at Sam. "F-Faith..." he groaned.

Jool stilled, looking at Sam. Jonas' hand stopped its feeble fluttering. The two women looked at each other for a bare moment before they both turned back to Jonas, now unconscious but still breathing.

"Did he just say Faith?" asked Vala.

"I don't like the sound of his breathing," Jool said with a concerned frown. It was bubbling over his lips in wheezing gasps. She looked up at Vala, "Vala?"

"I'll meet you at the infirmary!" Vala told her, realising at once what she was asking. The former Goa'uld turned and left, hurrying to retrieve the healing device.

The 'Gate shut down as the medical team arrived at a full run, loaded with equipment. Sam moved back so that they could get to Jonas, getting to her feet and moving to stand next to Teal'c, drawing comfort from his solid familiarity.

"Dial Langara!" General Landry shouted up to Walter. "And get a MALP in here."

As the medical team came into the room, Jool reassessed the once again unconscious Langaran. With practiced skill, the British Slayer confirmed his airway remained uncompromised and looked more closely at the weakly rising and falling chest and saw…paradoxical motion, a classic sign of flail chest. _'Not good…'_ she thought as the Stargate slowly began to turn, picking up speed. Pulling a stethoscope from one of the bags the corpsmen had brought, she placed it first on the less bruised side, confirming breath sounds were present, and then moved over to the obviously injured side; she grimaced at what she heard. '_Not bloody good at all.'_

Engrossed in her patient, she was barely aware of the frenetic activity in the 'Gateroom as Walter announced, "Chevron one encoded."

As the team laid the spine board and restraints nearby, Jool called out. "Alright, get a non-rebreather mask on him and crank it up! You!" she pointed at one of the corpsmen. "Set up two lines; one Lactated Ringers and the other saline."

With the mask now in place and pure oxygen in him, his colour began improving…slightly. As she worked, she glanced at General Landry and continued speaking as she worked. "This man is going to need surgery, and quickly. I can insert a chest tube in the infirmary, but he's going to need a thoracic surgeon, and bloody well fast, too.

"We've got multiple fractures in his chest; at least fractured ribs, and at least one flail segment," Jool was saying to everyone and no-one. "Possible spinal and closed head injuries; he will need x-rays to confirm and identify more…and there's a chance his lung is compromised."

"More than a chance," muttered one of the corpsmen, observing flecks of blood as well as pink froth on Jonas' lips.

"Give me that head pillow from the KED bag," she ordered. As the corpsman handed it to her, she pressed it tightly to the unevenly rising portion of his chest and began to rapidly tape it down.

"Shouldn't you be getting him to the infirmary?" the General snapped, obviously agitated at the perceived delay.

"ABC's, General Landry... This flail segment is a life-threatening breathing compromise and must be tended or his chances to survive into surgery will be non-existent," she replied coolly. Grimacing, the General fell silent, unhappy but somewhat mollified.

"Chevron seven..." announced Walter, and the 'Gate shut down, making General Landry's day that much worse. "Will not lock."

"Keep dialling!" the General barked up at him.

"Okay, we need to get him on his side," Jool ruled. "Get the backboard into position. Everyone ready? On three. One... two... three!" She was pleased to see the corpsmen knew their business; there was already a cervical collar in place on Jonas' neck and they were taping down the two IV lines.

"Chevron four encoded!" Walter announced as they carefully rolled Jonas onto his side, sliding the backboard into place and strapping him into it. Once secured, the Langaran was partially turned onto his injured side to further support the flail segment. "Chevron five encoded!"

"Blood pressure is dropping," warned one of the corpsmen.

Frowning, Jool looked quickly over the Langaran for any obvious sign of bleeding out; no puddles or pools, clothes dry, no large thoracic bruising…'_Oh no…'_ Pressing her stethoscope to his chest, she cursed loudly. "I need your biggest syringe and a 14-gauge needle, longest you have."

With practiced hands, the corpsman handed the two over and Jool quickly attached the needle. Taking a deep breath, she found her landmarks on her patient's chest and begin to slowly insert the needle at a 45-degree angle, pushing under his sternum, drawing back on the plunger as she did so.

"Jool?" Sam asked, her voice unsteady.

"Cardiac tamponade," the slayer breathed. Suddenly she felt a slight pop as the needle punctured the blood-filled sac surrounding his heart and blood began to fill the syringe from her back pressure. The syringe mostly filled and then she felt the change in tension. Stopping, she listened to his chest again and noted with relief his heart sounds were louder; weak and erratic, but louder.

"Chevron seven... will not lock!" Walter informed the room as the Stargate shut down again. Most of those present were too busy staring at the tableau beneath the control room to spare a glance for the Stargate though.

"Where the hell's that MALP?" demanded General Landry.

"On its way, sir," Walter told him over the intercom system as the Stargate started back up again. "Chevron one encoded..."

Working quickly with the corpsmen, Jool struggled to stabilise Jonas' condition. Finally there was nothing left they could do there and they moved him onto the waiting trolley, wheeling him out of the room as the MALP arrived. Jool went with him and so did Sam and Teal'c. As they left they heard the familiar sound of a wormhole erupting from the Stargate. None of them so much as glanced back.

**l**

Jem, bored with waiting for Jonas to come back and drawn by the sound of a fight, had left the bathroom long ago. Following a group of five Ori soldiers at a distance once he was on the ground floor, he had waited until they'd led him to the foyer before he killed them all. Entering the room, he had been just in time to see Adria hit Jonas and send him through the Stargate.

"No!" he screamed, firing his gun at Adria as he charged towards her, seeing only her, not the fact that his bullets were bouncing off of her.

Faith, once again hauling herself to her feet with the help of the DHD, took one in the shoulder. The last of Jonas' men and several Ori soldiers weren't so lucky. Adria met Jem's charge with a wave of her hand, sending him flying back as she sought out Liss. The Langaran slayer was behind her, and had her own revenge in mind as she buried a knife in Adria's back.

Adria cried out, sinking to her knees and the Prior outside spun around, his staff glowing as he flung a hand out, telepathically sending Liss back into Faith as the Tau'ri slayer pulled herself to her feet for a second time. The Stargate flickered and died. Adria concentrated, closing her eyes and the knife slid out of her flesh, the wound sealing up behind it. Exhausted, she pushed herself to her feet.

Liss launched herself at Adria again before Faith had risen to her knees and Mallie tackled Praemas from the side, leaving Kay with a choice of targets. Without hesitating, she launched a knife at the Prior outside, who was looking at her with a speculative gleam in his eyes that she didn't like. It buried itself in his chest and Kay turned to Adria as Liss was thrown through the air, landing next to Nya on the floor.

Meanwhile, Faith had been busy pressing buttons. With Jonas and his GDO gone, dialling Earth was impossible so she was dialling the only other address she knew... Camelot.

Kay had managed to throw two punches, both of which Adria blocked, when Jem landed on the Orici's back. A savage grin on his filthy face, he drew the knife in his hand across Adria's exposed throat as the Stargate activated, leaping off her as she fell to her knees, one hand pressed to her neck as red blood flowed through her fingers.

"Move it!" hollered Faith.

Adria concentrated all of the energy she could muster on repairing the damage. She had just managed to stop the bleeding when, across the other side of the world on which she stood, one of the Andarans fighting the Ori broke Keman's staff. Adria cried out as the backlash hit her, yet more of her blood trickling from one nostril.

The slayers on the other hand, were moving. Mallie kicked Praemas in the head and ran for it, grabbing Jem as she passed him. Liss picked up Nya and sprinted towards the Stargate platform while Kay helped Faith up the steps. Glancing over her shoulder as she and Kay reached the top of the steps, Faith's heart sank when she saw that Adria was getting to her feet. Kay pulled her forward and Langara disappeared.

The second the Chappa'ai shut off behind them all, Faith sagged, becoming dead weight in Kay's arms. Kay stumbled, dragging Faith down the last of the steps and laid her on the ground as carefully as possible. Looking at her properly for the first time, Kay was horrified by what she saw. Faith's face was grey and scarlet blood steadily seeped from a bullethole in her shoulder, staining her green tunic a dark brown. The stain was slowly spreading to meet the much smaller one on the other side caused by the blood dripping down Faith's face from an ugly gash on the side of her forehead.

"_Netu_!" Kay swore, dragging her bag off her shoulders and rummaging through it until she found the first piece of cloth that came to her hand.

"Faith?" Mallie said as Kay folded up her bloomers and placed them on top of the wound on Faith's shoulder, pressing hard. Faith frowned.

"Faith!" Kay echoed, more sharply. "I need bandages," she told the others. "Something to hold this in place so we can move her. Faith!"

Faith grimaced, opening her eyes to squint at Kay. "'ve b' five," she slurred, and her eyelashes drifted shut again.

"Oh, no you don't," Kay told her firmly, pressing down harder on her shoulder. Faith moaned, opening her eyes again.

"Wha'!" she demanded grouchily.

"Stay with us," Kay told her firmly.

"We need you," Mallie added, falling to her knees beside Faith and handing Kay ripped lengths from the skirt she had had in her pack.

"Help me sit her up," Kay said to Mallie and Mallie got behind Faith's head, helping to push her up into a sitting position. Faith groaned and passed out. Kay placed one of Mallie's hands on the bloody wodge of fabric on Faith's shoulder. "Hold this tightly," she instructed, grabbing one of the bandages.

"Where do we go?" Liss asked behind Kay as Kay began to wind the bandage over Faith's shoulder, sounding lost.

Kay glanced back at her shoulder at the two Langarans. Liss and Jem were both standing aimlessly at the foot of the Chappa'ai platform, staring blankly at the three on the floor. Liss had Nya slung unceremoniously over one shoulder and one hand was holding her in place while Jem hugged himself, a tense frown on his grubby face.

"Jem," said Kay, and she had to repeat herself to get his attention. "Nip up the steps and have a look round for me, there's a love. See if you can see any buildings."

Jem trudged back up the stairs as Kay turned back to Faith, winding the last bandage around her lolling head. Holding Faith's jaw in one hand, she peeled back each of her eyelids in turn.

"I can see smoke!" yelled Jem.

"How much?" Kay shouted back as she pulled Faith up with Mallie's help. The last thing they needed was to walk straight into another battle and she wondered if it was worth turning straight around and dialling another planet.

No. Whistler had told Faith that she had to be the one to dial the Chappa'ai, remembered Kay. Faith had spoken to her about her concern at being manipulated by her mysterious Powers but, remembering some of the situations they had found themselves in when someone other than Faith had dialled, Kay was more concerned about going against their wishes. Faith had been the one to dial. They should at least stay long enough to take a look around.

"Not much," Jem replied breathlessly, running down the steps leading up to the Chappa'ai. He pointed, "That way."

"Then lead on," Kay told him with a grin, briefly resting one hand on his painfully thin shoulder as Mallie picked Faith up, cradling her in her arms. "Come on, Liss."

**l**

The infirmary was chaos when Vala arrived, the Goa'uld healing device already in place on her hand. Jool and Doctor Lam were yelling orders while doctors and nurses rushed around them, doing their bidding. To one side stood Muscles and Sam, looking worried. Well, Sam looked worried. Muscles just looked more... Muscley than usual. At the centre of all the frenzied activity lay the only alien other than Muscles to serve on SG-1, the man she'd only just heard of, Jonas Quinn; bruised, battered, sprouting wires and tubes, and unconscious on one of the uncomfortable infirmary beds.

Vala homed in on Jool, weaving her way across the room to her. "Where do you want me?" she asked her when she reached her.

"Start at his head," Jool told her. "He's received a major trauma to both the front and back of his head and the swelling's getting worse. Doctor Foster is still twenty minutes away and we don't have time to wait for him to operate."

"Got it," Vala said brightly with an eager grin as Jool moved away, towards another one of the doctors clustered like satellites around Jonas.

Vala activated the healing device as Jool began what looked and sounded like a long technical conversation with the doctor. As a warm golden light shone from the device, bathing Jonas' swollen face, Vala could feel the device working. It was a drawing, draining sensation that would leave her limbs heavy and her eyelids leaden. That wasn't the only reason she didn't like to use the healing device though. To access its power she had to dredge up memories of the time she'd spent trapped in her own body by a Goa'uld from the deepest recesses of her mind. She was going to have nightmares tonight.

She hadn't been working more than a minute when several of the medical staff began wheeling Jonas away without a word of warning. Shutting off the device, Vala trotted after them. She wasn't finished!

She followed them through two sets of doors and they stopped, allowing her to start the healing device again while they injected Jonas with something. Once that was done, they wheeled him through another set of doors and into a room that she recognised as the surgical theatre, although she'd never been in it before, only watched from the observation room. She glanced up at it, reassured to see Sam and Muscles already up there. She waved to them. Sam smiled weakly and Muscles inclined his head as Jool joined them. Vala wondered why she was up there rather than down here and the healing device flickered as her concentration waned. The momentary lapse jolted Vala and she gave all her attention to healing Jonas.

**l**

Colonel Carter was so engrossed in the scene below them that Teal'c wasn't certain that she had registered Doctor Wilson's arrival in the observation room. Respectfully, he inclined his head to the slayer. She nodded back, smiling slightly at him, before she too turned her attention to the room below.

The SGC's medical staff moved with practised speed. Teal'c had seen them in action many times before and he was always impressed with their efficiency. Just as he was now as one of the surgeons made the first incision. At Jonas Quinn's head, Vala Mal Doran blanched. The former Goa'uld swallowed and stood her ground. Teal'c's private estimation of her went up.

The door to the observation room opened and Teal'c turned around as General Landry bustled up the stairs and into the room, inclining his head in greeting. General Landry nodded back to him as he joined them at the window.

"How is he?" he asked.

"Still breathing," Doctor Wilson informed him dryly. "Mr Goddard has just started the pericardiectomy. Once he's done, Mr Hudson will be able to get to Jonas' lungs and ribs and Mr Nelson is assessing his spinal injury. In the meantime, Vala's working on healing his head injuries until Mr Foster arrives here."

"Will he be alright?" General Landry wanted to know. Both Colonel Carter and Teal'c also gave their attention to the red-haired slayer, wanting to hear her answer.

"It's hard to tell," Doctor Wilson replied, pursing her lips as she stared down at the scene below them. "He's got a better chance now than he did before but..." She sighed.

"What?" demanded Colonel Carter.

"He might never fully recover," Doctor Wilson reluctantly told her. "We'll know more once he wakes up." Abruptly, she changed the subject, "What happened when we left the 'Gateroom? Did I hear the Stargate activating?"

"You did," General Landry said, looking weary. "We sent through a MALP."

"And?" Doctor Wilson asked eagerly. "Was Faith there?"

"The MALP was shut down after a few seconds," General Landry told them. "We were unable to get a clear view of the immediate vicinity of the 'Gate..."

"But?" asked Colonel Carter.

"We sent a UAV through after the MALP, broadcasting on a general frequency," said General Landry. "We didn't make contact with anyone before the UAV was also shut down but we did get a good view of Kelowna," The General paused, looking grim. "It's not a pretty sight."

"So was Faith there or not?" Doctor Wilson asked, staring down at Jonas Quinn.

"We still don't know," General Landry said to her. "But as soon as the Odyssey arrives, Operation Lim is a go."

"Operation Lim?" enquired Teal'c, his curiosity piqued.

"Langaran Infiltration Mission," Doctor Wilson informed him absently, her attention caught by something below. Leaning forward, she activated the intercom system. "Vala!" she said sharply. "That's enough."

"But-" Vala Mal Doran, pale-faced and swaying, protested.

"I don't want to have to hospitalise you too," Doctor Wilson said firmly. "Get your arse up here."

"Now," General Landry added into the microphone. "That's an order Miss Mal Doran."

**l**

Jem was the first to spot the wall in the distance. Of all of them struggling towards it, he was possibly the least exhausted, which might go some way towards explaining it. Broken, beaten and bloody, the slayers trudged toward the buildings, stumbling through a stone gateway into what looked like a busy market town.

Merchants and shoppers alike stopped what they were doing to stare at the newcomers. They stared defiantly back. They might have just had their asses kicked, as Faith would say if she was still conscious, but they were still alive and still standing... well, most of them were and they were clutching their weapons tightly. As far as they were concerned, they were more than ready for anything this new world might throw at them. Unless it was Adria again...

There was a murmuring from the crowd and they seemed to focus on Faith, held up between Mallie and Kay. Mallie scowled at them all. The crowd shifted and parted as a young brunette girl who was dressed more like the men of the village than the women pushed her way to the front, a sword belted to her waist.

"Faith!" she cried, stepping forward, and came to a halt as three different weapons were pointed at her by Mallie, Kay and Liss. The crowd murmured, disturbed, and took a collective step back.

"You know her?" Kay asked, her eyes narrowed at the girl.

"Faith is known to all in Camelot," a tall, stately-looking man in rich clothing informed them in a grave voice, moving to stand beside the girl. "She defeated the Black Knight in this very place, only a few moons ago. I am Meurik, the Governor here."

"I thought she was lost," the girl said with confused frown. She glanced at Meurik, "Did Doctor Jackson not say that she was lost?"

"It was Colonel Mitchell who first informed me of her loss," Meurik told her gently, and the girl nodded, looking satisfied.

"And you are?" Mallie asked her pointedly.

"I am Valencia of the Sword," Valencia said proudly.

"You are in need of a healer," Meurik said to Kay. "Let Valencia guide you."

"My mother is the best healer in Camelot..." Valencia added temptingly.

The slayers looked at one another, coming to an unspoken agreement to follow the young girl. None of them were in good shape and Faith and Nya needed more help than they could give them. Liss stepped forward, Nya slung over her shoulder, gesturing to Valencia to lead the way.

"Thank you," Kay said gratefully as she and Mallie passed Governor Meurik, carrying Faith between them.

Governor Meurik nodded at her but seemed unwilling to let them out of his sight. Falling in beside Kay he walked with them, his concerned eyes fixed on Faith. Still staring, the villagers moved aside to let the group pass, a dispirited Jem trailing after them. Silence stalked their procession through the crowded streets. It was unnerving how intent the natives were on Faith, with worry and fear written on their faces, thought Kay.

Fortunately, it didn't take them long to reach their destination. Valencia led them to a medium-sized brick house next to a blacksmith's forge and, throwing the door open, rushed inside, calling for her mother. Awkwardly, Mallie and Kay manoeuvred Faith through the door behind Liss and Nya, entering a large room. Several comfortable-looking armchairs were grouped around the cheery fire crackling in the fireplace, a doll with long black hair wearing black leather trousers lying discarded in one.

"My sister's," Valencia explained, snatching it up and stuffing it behind rows jars of variously coloured liquids grouped on a shelf as Liss lowered Nya to lie on a scrubbed wooden table. "Mother!"

"I'm here! What's wrong?" exclaimed a plump woman only a few years older than Kay as she bustled into the room, tucking a strand of greying hair behind one ear with a floury hand and leaving a smudge of the powder on her cheek. She stopped as she caught sight of the small crowd standing in her house, "Oh my."

Staring assessingly at Faith, Valencia's mother hurried over to the table and Nya, wiping her hands on her apron. She peeled back one of Nya's eyelids and then the other one. Then she checked both of Nya's eyes at the same time. Finally she stepped back from the table.

"Both of them upstairs," she decreed. "Put the blonde in Ramus' room. Gently!" she warned as Valencia obediently picked Nya up. "You two," she said, looking at Kay and Mallie. "First door at the top of the stairs."

Kay nodded in understanding and she and Mallie followed Valencia out of the room, leaving Liss and Jem alone with the Governor and Valencia's mother. She bobbed a curtsey to the Governor as she hurried to the shelf where Valencia had hidden the doll.

"Governor Meurik," she said, pulling several jars off the shelf. "If you'll excuse me..."

"By all means," said the Governor, bowing his head as she picked up a bottle from the cupboard below the shelf, pouring the amber-coloured liquid into two glasses. Unseen by anyone, the healer added a drop in each glass from a small vial she took from her pocket. "I hope you have no objections to me staying awhile?"

"Please make yourself at home," she said, turning back around with a glass in each hand. She glanced at Jem and Liss, including them, "All of you. I'm only sorry that I cannot be more hospitable. But, come," she said to Liss and Jem, steering them towards seats by the fire and pressing a glass each on them. "Sit. Relax. You look worn to the bone. Your friends will be down shortly."

Neither Jem nor Liss replied, but the healer didn't wait for one, picking up the jars she had selected and bustling out of the room after Valencia and the others. Jem looked at Liss, unsure of himself for one of the few times in his life and ready to follow her lead. She ignored him, ignored everyone, staring moodily into the fire as one finger traced endlessly round and round the rim of her glass.

"So," said Governor Meurik with false heartiness. "What are your names?"

**l**

Upstairs, Valencia had just joined Mallie and Kay in the small bedroom at the top of the stairs when her mother hurried into the room. Setting the jars she was carrying down on the small chest of drawers at the foot of the bed and pulling fresh bandages out of one of the drawers, she hurried to Faith's side, brushing the slayers aside.

"What happened to her shoulder?" she asked, gently pulling the pillow from beneath Faith's head and using it to prop up her booted feet.

"I think she got shot," Kay told the healer as she brandished a pair of scissors and cut through the bandage knotted around Faith's head.

"What with?" she wanted to know, peeling the bandage back to reveal a scabbed cut on Faith's forehead."

"A bullet," said Kay. She explained when the healer frowned, "A small piece of metal about so big," she said, measuring a space with her fingers.

"Is it still in there?" Valencia's mother asked.

"There wasn't an exit wound on the other side," Kay told her.

"Valencia," said her mother. "Send your brother to fetch Whyte. Tell him to hurry. The sooner we get it out the better."

"Will she be alright?" Mallie asked her desperately as Valencia nodded and left the room.

"I'm doing my best for her," the healer told her bluntly, cutting the bandages on Faith's shoulder. "I need someone to sit with your other friend and tell me if anything changes. Can you do that?"

Mallie swallowed and nodded, "Yes." Looking backwards over her shoulder at Faith's still figure as Valencia's mother cut her tunic from her body, she left the room.

The healer hissed through her teeth as she revealed the ugly wound on Faith's shoulder. Replacing the bloody clothing with a fresh pad of linen, she instructed Kay to apply pressure to it. When Kay's hands had replaced hers, she stood, crossing to the chest of drawers and pouring water from a pitcher into an ewer, adding a dash of a green liquid from one of her jars.

"Who's Whyte?" Kay asked her as she washed her hands.

"A barber surgeon," the healer told her, drying her hands on a towel she dropped on the bedside table. "He's good. We've worked together in the past."

Taking Kay's place, she peeled back the linen covering the wound on Faith's shoulder. She kept her eyes on Faith's face as she gently but firmly probed inside the wound with her finger. Faith grimaced and she frowned, withdrawing her finger and replacing the linen pad. She waved Kay over to take her place so that she could wash her hands again.

"How long ago did you say she was injured?" she asked.

"I didn't," Kay said, trying to decide whether or not she could trust her. She desperately wanted to trust her.

The healer turned to face her, her face grave. "I need to know if she will heal as quickly as my daughter, Valencia," she told Kay.

"That depends," Kay said slowly. Valencia of the Sword... "Is your daughter stronger and faster than any man?" she asked. "Does she wake screaming in the night from nightmares of facing pale men with scars on their faces?" Valencia's mother nodded, looking torn between relief and worry.

"Then she will," Kay told her. And she needed to talk to Valencia.

**l**

"How is he?" Jon demanded as he burst through the door of the observation room, loping up the stairs to face the crowd gathered there.

"Not good," Carter told him, her face worried as she stood beside Teal'c. She quickly turned back to the scene below.

"He's in good hands," the Doc reassured him. "Caroline's supervising the operating procedure now."

"Surprised you're not down there, Doc," Jon said, moving closer to the window so that he could see what was happening for himself.

"I'm not a surgeon," she explained, moving with him. "I'd only be in the way."

Jon whistled lowly as he caught sight of Jonas' battered face below the tubes and mask, "What the hell happened?"

"Near as we can tell, Jonas dialled Earth from Langara," Hank told him. "Almost twenty minutes later he was thrown out of the Stargate, hitting the control room window."

"Doctor Wilson and Colonel Carter administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation," Teal'c took up the tale. "Upon reviving, Jonas Quinn managed to say Slayer Faith's name before he fell unconscious."

"Faith was with him?" Jon asked, surprised.

"She didn't come through the 'Gate," said Hank. "We sent a MALP and UVA through once we were able to establish a returning wormhole but they were both destroyed before we could tell if she was there."

"He was beaten within an inch of his life before he exited the wormhole," the Doc added. "We probably won't know why until we go to Langara."

"We're going to Langara?" Jon's eyebrows rose as he glanced at Hank.

"As soon as the Odyssey arrives," his old friend confirmed.

"What do we do until then?" Jon asked curiously.

"Pray he wakes up," Hank advised him succinctly. "I want to know more about what I'm sending you into."

**l**

Valencia had returned to the room only to be sent to relieve Mallie by her mother. When Mallie appeared, the woman sent her downstairs to wait for the barber surgeon, with instructions to send him straight up. Kay she kept to help her, frustrating Kay's desire to talk to Valencia and check on the others. She had to admit that the healer kept her busy though. She hadn't asked any more questions either. It was as though she could tell that Kay was unwilling to confide in her without Faith's approval.

When the sharp-faced Whyte appeared, clutching a large bag with long thin fingers, Kay was released. Shutting the door behind her, she looked around. There were three other doors facing onto the upstairs landing, all closed. She could hear voices drifting up from downstairs and she followed them.

Mallie was chattering to Governor Meurik, telling him all about Adria and their escape through the Chappa'ai while he listened attentively. Beside the fire, Liss was curled up in an armchair, fast asleep, her hands clutched around a half-full glass. It was probably the best thing for her, thought Kay, removing the glass from her hands and placing it on a nearby table.

"Where's Jem?" she asked Mallie.

"I believe he said that he was going to the privy," Governor Meurik told her. "That was some time ago."

Meaning that he'd probably gone off on his own. Kay sighed. "Mallie, will you go and look for him?" she asked.

"Why me?" asked Mallie. "Why can't you go?"

"Because I need to talk to Valencia," Kay told her wearily.

Mallie's eyes narrowed, "Is she...?"

"I think so," said Kay. Governor Meurik watched them closely, a bemused frown on his forehead. "I need to talk to her."

"I'll find Jem," Mallie promised, getting up.

**l**

Cam woke slowly to the sound of his ringing phone. He opened his eyes and raised his head, rubbing his stiff neck. Apparently he'd passed out in front of his TV. The last thing he remembered was the sun coming up. His answering machine kicked in and he got to his feet, stretching as his short pre-recorded message played out.

"Cam, where are you?" Sam's unhappy voice rang out of the machine and Cam froze. "This is the third message I've left and you're not answering your cell. You'd better get your butt into work."

Cam lunged for his phone, snatching it up. "Sam?" he said.

The dial tone greeted him. Replacing the phone in its cradle, Cam pressed the button that would play back his messages. What had he missed?

**l**

Valencia watched the unconscious woman closely for any changes in her condition. As she watched, she couldn't help wondering who the woman was and how she had come to be travelling with Faith. Her features were exotic, once you looked past the broken nose. Where did she come from? What kind of life did she lead? The door to the room opened and Valencia looked up as the short-haired woman who also travelled with Faith stuck her head around the door.

"Hello," she said, entering the room and closing the door behind her. Valencia rose to meet her. "I didn't get a chance to introduce myself earlier, I'm Kay."

"Hello," Valencia said shyly, nodding her head in greeting. "It is an honour to meet you."

"It is?" said Kay, looking surprised. "Why?"

"You travel with Faith," Valencia explained reverently.

"Yeah," said Kay. "About that..."

"What about it?" asked Valencia when she remained silent.

"I'm trying to work out how best to explain it," Kay told her. "Faith usually begins 'The world is older than you know' but then she starts correcting herself." Valencia frowned, wondering what she was trying to say and Kay sighed.

"Two years ago you suddenly got stronger and faster," she said. "You could see and hear things that you couldn't before. You also started having nightmares about pale men with strange staffs and scars on their faces."

"How do you know that?" Valencia asked her, shaken.

"Because it happened to me too," Kay told her. "It happened to all of us."

"Even Faith?" asked Valencia.

"Faith was already a slayer," Kay said. She explained when Valencia frowned, "That's what we are. Slayers. Chosen by The Powers That Be to fight the Ori."

**l**

Mallie didn't have far to look for Jem. She found him in the blacksmith next doors, fast asleep on a pile of sacking in the corner. The massive blacksmith grinned at her, his teeth white in his sweaty soot-stained face as he pounded on a red hot piece of metal, sending sparks flying.

"Wondered how long it'd be before someone came out to fetch 'un," he said. "Poor lad looked dead on his feet."

Mallie felt pretty tired herself. She'd only managed to get about an hour's sleep last night before they'd attacked the Lithair Building and although it all seemed terribly far away, the trauma of events was starting to make itself felt. Her body was crying out for food, rest and something... else. For now though, it would have to wait.

"Thank you for looking after him," she said, picking Jem up.

"No trouble," the blacksmith said, the blows from the hammer in his hand ringing out a steady beat. "Tell the missus I'll be in in a minute."

"Uh... of course," said Mallie, wondering what he meant as he plunged the metal he was working on into a bucket of water. It hissed, sending steam into the air and Mallie made her escape with Jem. Could he be Valencia's father?

**l**

Members of SG-1, SG-13 and medical staff continued to trickle into the base in a steady stream, all eager to find out just what had happened. Tired of repeating himself, General Landry had scheduled a briefing for an hour after Jonas came out of surgery, whenever that would be, and locked himself in his office to call the President and inform him of the latest developments. After that arduous phone call would come another, when he called Lord Giles and told him the latest news of his errant slayer.

The observation room above the theatre slowly filled almost to bursting point with both SG-1 and 13 crammed into it. Save for the occasional comment, they were mostly silent as they watched the surgeons battling to save Jonas Quinn. Together, they'd already weathered one scare, when Jonas' heart had begun to beat erratically and electrodes had been placed directly onto his heart in an attempt to jumpstart its natural rhythm. Fortunately it had worked.

Daniel Jackson and Jonathon O'Neil stood at opposite ends of the room, studiously ignoring one another with varying degrees of success. Which is to say that Jon was succeeding admirably in his pretence that Daniel didn't exist and that Daniel was failing miserably while their respective teams created a buffer between them. In the corner, Vala was snoring lightly, exhausted by her efforts with the Goa'uld healing device. Efforts that meant that Doctor Foster's tardy arrival had been unnecessary.

That was the scene that greeted Cam when he arrived, the last person to do so. The door banged shut behind him, jerking Vala upright in her seat, wiping her mouth as he jogged up the stairs.

"What happened?" he asked.

**l**

Chased downstairs by Valencia's mother, Kay and Valencia entered the living room to discover Mallie entertaining not only Governor Meurik but also a large balding man dressed in stained clothes and a singed brown leather apron and a young boy that Kay took for Valencia's brother. Jem was snoring loudly in one of the chairs by the fire, opposite the slumbering Liss.

"Father!" Valencia exclaimed reproachfully. "You have not offered our guests refreshments."

"You're right," cried the large man, clapping a hand to his forehead. "Where are my manners? After such a battle as the one you describe, you must be famished!"

"What battle?" Valencia asked curiously as her father got to his feet.

"Did Kay tell you about Adria?" Mallie asked her eagerly, glancing at Kay as she sat down in one of the armchairs.

"We hadn't got to that part yet," Kay told her. She sighed as she felt her body finally start to relax.

"Adria is the leader of the Ori," Mallie told Valencia. "She's half-Ori. We were trying to get to the Stargate on Langara to dial Earth when Faith..." She broke off as Valencia's mother entered the room, the angular Whyte behind her, standing. "How is she?"

"Resting," Valencia's mother told her.

"I managed to remove the metal embedded in her shoulder," Whyte said with a sniff. "I must say, you did well to keep the wound free from infection until you could get to help."

"Thank you," said Kay, her eyes meeting Valencia's mother's.

"Let me know if she takes a turn for the worse," Whyte said to the healer.

"Of course," she promised, ushering him to the door. Closing the door behind him, she leaned against it for a moment before turning to Kay, "Faith woke while he was operating. I had to give her a larger dose of sedative than usual."

"I'm sure you did what you felt was right," Kay assured her.

"Your other friend..."

"Nya," Kay supplied.

"Nya, said the healer. "Is still unconscious. Ramus, run up to your room and keep an eye on her."

"I'll sit with Faith," volunteered Valencia.

"Where's your father?" asked her mother.

"He said something about feeding our guests..." Valencia told her, slipping out of the room.

"That man!" exclaimed her mother. "Messing up my kitchen? I don't think so!"

Governor Meurik stood as she bustled out of the room. "I must attend to my duties," he said, bowing his head to Mallie and Kay.

Exhausted, Kay pushed herself to her feet, facing him, "Thank you for all of your help."

"It was but a fraction of what this village owes to Faith and her companions," Meurik told her with a kind smile. "I shall return tomorrow if I may."

"Of course," Kay told him. "Faith should be up to thank you herself then."

"I hope that you are right," said Meurik. Bowing his head again, he left.

Mallie and Kay stared at each other. The crackling of the fire and Jem's snoring punctuated the air between them.

"Now what?" Mallie asked.

"Now we wait for food," Kay told her, sitting back down heavily. "Then we see about finding somewhere to stay and getting some sleep."

"Good plan," Mallie told her, crossing her arms on the table and resting her head on them. "How is Faith? Really?"

"She lost a lot of blood," Kay told her, remembering. "I didn't see them operate but Valencia's mother said that Whyte was good."

Mallie snorted, "Valencia! How long do you think that will last?"

"Not long," said Kay with a yawn. "Ten minutes after Faith wakes up?"

Mallie chuckled and then yawned herself. The two slayers fell into a comfortable silence, easy with one another's company. They'd spent too much time living and fighting beside each other to be troubled by a little quiet.

**l**

"I assume that you're all now fully aware of this morning's events," said Hank as he marched out of his office. The people sat around the large table leapt to their feet, waiting for him to sit down before they retook their own seats. Hank remained standing as they chorused an affirmation. "What you might not have seen," Hank continued, still standing as he waved a hand at the large briefing screen. "Is this."

He finally sat and the others followed suit as the footage taken by the MALP and UAV he had sent to Langara began to play. First, the MALP rolled up the SGC ramp, disappearing into the Stargate. The scene on the other side was one of destruction. Bleeding bodies littered the marble floor, staining it with large patches of dark red. Beyond them, the large glass doors leading into the room were mostly shattered, a scattered mob standing outside, staring in. The furnishings in the room were either in pieces or riddled with bulletholes, in some cases both. In the centre of the room stood a tall thin woman with dark hair piled on top of her head, wearing an elaborate bloodstained dress as she held one hand to her neck.

"Adria," Vala said with certainty, her voice leaden. Daniel Jackson glanced at her, clearly concerned for her.

The woman gestured and the footage dissolved into static. Immediately the UAV footage began to play. The UAV flew into the Stargate and out the other side, aiming for the shattered glass doors and flying through one. Ascending, the small surveillance plane circled the building, providing them with excellent views of the smoke lying like a shroud over Kelowna, rising from a myriad of different sources. Captain O'Neil whistled lowly.

"Holy Hannah," said Colonel Carter, her face white and shaken. "What happened?"

"That's what I'm sending SG-13 to find out," said Hank as the footage ended abruptly.

"Yeah, about that," said Jon. "When exactly does the Odyssey arrive? I need to set The Simpsons to record."

"It's due to arrive back in our galaxy from Pegasus today, Si-_Captain_," Carter informed him as Hank glared at him. "It should reach Earth on Wednesday."

"Hopefully by then Jonas Quinn will be able to tell us whether or not Faith is there," Hank commented. "How is he?" he asked, looking at his daughter and Doctor Wilson as they sat next to one another.

The two doctors shared a heavy look laden with meanings that Hank couldn't follow but it was his daughter who spoke up. "He's stable," Caroline told him. "For now. We're keeping a close eye on him. Barring any complications, he should recover well."

Hank frowned. "What aren't you telling me?" he wanted to know.

Caroline sighed, and told him, "Even if there are no complications, it's highly unlikely that he'll make a full recovery. His injuries are too severe. Besides the damage to his heart and chest, which he'll need more surgery to correct, his spinal cord was partially severed."

"Probably when he was rolled onto his back," Doctor Wilson added helpfully. She blushed when both Hank and Caroline glared at her. "Sorry."

"So you're saying he'll never walk again?" Mitchell asked. He leaned back in his chair, a sympathetic look on his face. "That sucks."

"It's too early to tell," said Caroline. "The injury is on his L3 vertebrae and it's not a complete injury so he may retain feeling and even regain some mobility in time. We won't know until he wakes up."

"And when is that likely to be?" Hank asked her.

"Not for some time," Caroline told him. "Although Miss Mal Doran's efforts with the Goa'uld healing device meant that Doctor Foster didn't need to operate to relieve the pressure, there's still a significant amount of brain swelling. We're keeping him in a medical coma until it subsides." As Caroline talked, Vala brightened at the mention of her actions, sitting further up in her chair. Doctor Wilson grinned at her and Vala grinned back.

"I'd be more than happy to continue treating Jonas," Vala offered generously, looking directly at Hank as she twirled the ends of one of her two bunches of hair between her fingers. "Anything I can do to help..."

"It would speed up his recovery," Caroline admitted.

Hank nodded. "Do it," he ordered.

**l**

Kay was gently shaken awake by Valencia's mother. Gazing blearily up at her, it was a moment before Kay remembered what had happened. Once she had, her eyes snapped fully open and she jerked forward to stand up.

"It's alright," Valencia's mother said reassuringly. "Faith and Nya are fine. Still sleeping. I thought that you might be hungry."

Turning her head, Kay saw that the table was filled with food, every inch of its surface covered. Around the table sat Mallie, Liss and Jem, all eagerly helping themselves to food. To one side stood Valencia's father, beaming proudly as he watched them eat.

"How long was I asleep?" Kay asked. The sun had moved position to the other side of the house.

"A couple of hours," Valencia's mother told her.

"Thank you," Kay told her gratefully, standing and stretching. She stood in front of the healer who had done so much for them, "I don't even know your name."

"Teegara," the woman told her. She gestured to her husband, who was just sitting down at the table. "And that great lump's Galeth. I told the others to call me Mother Teeg and you must too." She ushered Kay over to the table, "Now, I wasn't sure what you all liked so I made some of everything."

Looking at the table, Kay could well believe it. There was an impressive array of dishes, most of which were unfamiliar to her, although she could take a guess at their origin. This world had none of the Goa'uld influences that infiltrated most other worlds she had visited. But neither had Langara, Simarka or the deserted planet they had been stranded on. Until she had heard of the Tau'ri, Kay had never heard of a world where the Goa'uld did not hold sway. Since meeting Faith, she had travelled to four. How many more were there?

"Now," said Teegara, seating herself only once Kay had sat and begun to help herself to the food. "The others have told me all about how you came to be here, so don't fret, I'm not going to ask about it. What I am going to ask is, what do you intend to do now?"

Kay paused, a bread roll halfway to her plate, and stared at the others. They all looked back at her, clearly expecting her to have the answer.

"Mother!" reproached Galeth.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"I thought we agreed that we would let them eat first," said Galeth.

"They're eating!" Teegara pointed out. "I'm just curious!"

"I suppose," Kay said, and hesitated when the bickering couple turned their focus to her. "We'll find somewhere to stay until Faith and Nya wake up."

"I won't hear of it," Teegara told her firmly. "You must stay here."

"Where?" Mallie asked curiously. "You only have four bedrooms and Faith and Nya are already taking up two of those."

"There are rooms above the smithy," Teegara said. "It won't take me a minute to make up beds."

"We can do that," Kay told her, glancing at the others. She glared pointedly at Mallie when she looked like she might object. "You've got more than enough on your hands already," she added. And it would give Liss and Jem something to do. The Langaran pair were listless and withdrawn, picking at the food on their plates.

"I am going to sleep down here," Mallie announced emphatically. "If anything happens during the night, one of us should be here to protect Nya and Faith."

"We'll each take turns," Kay decided. "You can have the first watch."

"As long as you're up," said Teegara, "Could you sit with Nya? Valencia or I'll be in with Faith."

"Mother! Mother!" cried Ramus, running into the room. "She's awake!"

Teegara was on her feet before Kay could ask who, running from the room with Mallie and Kay on her heels. Jem and Liss looked at each other. Jem shrugged and the two Langarans, more slowly than the others, got up and followed them. Left alone with his son, Galeth sighed and helped himself to more coney.

"Best get some while you can, lad," he advised Ramus. "These lasses eat like your sister."

Upstairs, Valencia poked her head out of the guest bedroom door as feet thundered up the stairs. She was in time to see her mother shut Ramus' door in the faces of the two women following her.

"What's happening?" she asked them.

"Nya woke up," the blonde told her as Kay began to pace the length of the small landing and their two other companions joined them at the top of the stairs. "How is Faith?"

"Still unconscious," Valencia sighed, her eyes resting curiously on the boy that travelled with them. Had he ever bathed?

"What's taking so long?" demanded Kay, still anxiously pacing.

"Mother's just making sure she's alright," Valencia explained. "I'm sure she'll let you in in a minute."

As if on cue, Teegara opened the door. The young blonde girl, closest to the door, barrelled past her, closely followed by Kay. The other two filed into the room after them. Valencia looked at her mother.

"Go on," Teegara told her, leaving the door open. "I'll watch Faith."

Valencia smiled gratefully at her, slipping past her on the landing to enter her brother's room, closing the door behind her. All four travellers were clustered around the bed as the younger blonde hurriedly told the wan woman in the bed how they had escaped from the situation they had found themselves in. Valencia hadn't heard the tale yet and she listened with interest as she joined the back of the group.

"...Liss killed the Prior and then Adria tried to kill her but Jonas hit her so she threw him through the Stargate and Liss stabbed her in the back but she healed while Faith was dialling again and got up which was when Jem cut her throat and we escaped through the Stargate."

"Where are we?" Nya asked, looking bewildered.

"It's called Camelot," Kay told her soothingly. "Faith's been here before."

Nya frowned as if she was just realised something which had puzzled her, "Where is Faith?" Her gaze fell on Valencia and her frown deepened, "And who is that?"

"That's Val," said the young blonde and it was Valencia's turn to frown. "She's a slayer too."

"Her mother's the healer," Kay explained. "We're staying here until..."

"Until what?" Nya asked in fearful tones.

"Until Faith wakes up," Kay admitted to her. "Don't worry; she's going to be fine. She had a bit of a knock on the head and then they had to drug her to dig the bullet out of her shoulder but other than that, she's fine."

"I want to see her," said Nya, throwing the bedcovers off her and struggling to stand.

Kay pressed her back into the bed, "You're not well enough to get up yet. Maybe tomorrow, if Faith isn't awake, you can get up and see her. But it's up to Teegara."

"I thought you said Faith was going to be fine?" Nya said anxiously as she settled back down on the pillows.

"She is," Kay said firmly.

"Then why might she not be awake?" Nya asked.

"Mother Teeg had to give her something to keep her asleep while they took the bullet out of her shoulder," the young blonde informed her. "She gave her a bigger dose than normal because she's... well, Faith."

"Are you hungry?" Kay asked her.

Nya looked thoughtful, "A little..."

"I'll bring you up some food," Kay told her. "We'll leave you in peace for now."

Valencia thought that Nya didn't look too happy at the prospect of being left alone as Kay began to usher the others out of the room. Slipping into a corner, Valencia managed to escape Kay's attention, remaining behind when the others left. Once they had gone Nya sighed, a fretful frown on her face as she stared up at the ceiling. She looked so fragile and lonely that Valencia couldn't help stepping forward.

Immediately, Nya's stony gaze fell upon her. "So you are the new slayer," she said, and it didn't sound like a question.

"So Kay tells me," Valencia said with a bright smile that fell flat in the face of Nya's steely regard.

"I do not understand," Nya told her, "How it is that Faith has been here before and yet you do not follow her?"

"She did not ask me to," Valencia said simply and the truth of her statement rang in her voice. "In truth, she was only here long enough to vanquish the Black Knight and aid Doctor Jackson and Colonel Mitchell in their search for the Sangreal before they vanished in a bright light."

Nya frowned. "Then..." she said slowly. "This is the planet Faith visited before the Ori invaded. The one her Dream led her to."

It was Valencia's turn to frown, "It is?"

**l**

Adria lay in a healing trance. Both her body and her reserves of energy had been drained by her recent encounter with Faith and the rest of her Oriclave and she needed to recuperate as quickly as possible. While she had been battling Faith, her fathers had managed to pierce the veil that concealed her Oriclave, learning the location of the next woman Faith would find. With luck, she could be there tomorrow. If only her neck would heal!

Keman's death had triggered the detonation of the unstable element the natives of this planet called naquadria that had been stored, with ordinary naquada, in Andari. The resulting explosion had claimed the lives of all the soldiers who had been fighting in her name just as she had been focussing entirely on channelling the energy of those who worshipped her and her Fathers into healing her slit throat. The sudden drain of her power had left her unable to continue her work and with an ugly thick red scar that ran from one side of her long slender neck to the other. She had barely had enough energy left to destroy the two spying devices the Tau'ri had sent through the Stargate once Faith and her accomplices had escaped. She had collapsed shortly afterwards.

It had been Praemas who had shut down the wormhole connection and, despite his injured arm, carried her to her room. Only once he was certain that she would survive had he left to have his own injuries tended to. Adria didn't think that he had been back since. It was hard to tell while she was in the healing trance.

His loyalty was to be commended. It truly was a shame that she would have to leave him here to deal with the aftermath of the events of the last two days but he was the only person she could trust. Grevas would remain in Terania as he had during the planet's uprising, tending to the Teranians education in Origin. That left just one other Prior available to quell two countries. She could spare one from the ship in orbit but she needed someone to oversee operations and right now there was no-one she trusted more than Praemas.

While she went to personally oversee the conversion of the as yet undiscovered member of her Oriclave, Praemas would remain here, in charge of the planet, until she could send someone to replace him. She would be taking the ship. Although it would leave Praemas' position here weakened, she was confident that he would be able to cope, especially now that Langara's thorn, Jonas Quinn, had been removed. Arriving by ship would create a far stronger impression of the might of the Ori then travelling through this galaxy's antiquated Stargate system.

If only her throat would heal!

**l**

"No!" cried Jem, panicked. "I won't! It's not natural!"

"What's not natural is the amount of dirt on you," Mother Teeg told him firmly. "You're not making my sheets filthy. If you want to sleep in a bed tonight then you have to have a bath first."

"Then I won't sleep in a bed," Jem said desperately.

"Nice try," admired Mallie.

"You will not," said Kay. "You're dead on your feet. Teegara's right. Bath and then bed for you."

"Who knows what kind of lice you've got crawling on you," said Mother Teeg, moving towards her shelf of potions. "I'll give you a wash for your hair."

"I won't!" Jem cried again, glancing over at the unguarded door and wondering if he could make it through before Kay or one of the others caught him. They couldn't make him bathe!

"Jem," Kayliss sighed wearily. "Just do as they say."

"Don't make me wash you myself," Kay threatened, shoving her sleeves up her arms and staring sternly at him.

"You wouldn't!" Jem said, horrified at the thought.

"Keep arguing and find out," Kay told him pointedly, crossing her arms.

**l**

The day's events didn't stop Jool from taking the night duty she was scheduled in for. If anything, it encouraged her. Coming on duty, she forced Caroline to go home and settled in for the night, checking on the welfare of all of the patients in her care by first reading through their charts and then paying a personal visit to each of them. Jonas she left until last.

She'd checked in on him a couple of times since the surgery but he'd always been surrounded by a crowd of people, despite Caroline's stringent rules about the number of visitors per bed. Now was no exception. Teal'c, Vala and Doctor Jackson were sitting around his bed. Well, Vala and Doctor Jackson were sitting, Teal'c was propping up the wall with his massive shoulders.

Jool eased past them, checking Jonas' vitals and marking them onto his chart. Looking up, she caught Doctor Jackson's eyes on her and she smiled briefly at him. Vala's eyes narrowed jealously. Jool clicked her pen off and grinned at her, beckoning as she retreated from the room.

Puzzled, Vala frowned and glanced at Daniel, who had gone back to staring morosely at the man lying on the bed. Patting Daniel on the knee twice, she rose and followed Jool out of the room. Her friend was waiting for her outside.

"What is it?" Vala asked, her voice hushed as she glanced back at Daniel.

"It's about the healing device," Jool told her, walking away down the deserted hallway. Vala followed in her wake. "Caroline and I had a chat and we were wondering if you could manage two sessions tomorrow? Obviously, we'll make sure that they're much shorter than the one you did today; we don't want to wear you out. We're thinking that if we concentrate one of the sessions on the damage to Jonas' third lumbar vertebrae-"

"Sure!" Vala, noticing the signs that her friend was about to launch into a full medical babble, interrupted her, "Of course. No problem. Now... if that was all..."

Vala stopped following Jool, tiptoeing backwards exaggeratedly. Jool stopped and laughed.

"Go on," she said with a grin. "Go back to your Daniel."

"Thanks," said Vala, answering her grin as she turned to lightly run back down the length of hallway they had traversed.

"Remind him that Caroline left instructions that he was to be ordered off-base at midnight!" Jool called after her.

"Will do!" Vala waved her hand in acknowledgement.

**l**

Jem's hair was red. Not just a little bit red either; as red as his face when he had sullenly entered the sitting room earlier, all freshly-scrubbed and still just a little bit damp and Gelath had taken one look at him and burst out laughing, soon followed by everyone else, Mallie included. The merriment had been almost a relief, easing tensions that Mallie hadn't realised she had still been carrying. But it was a relief that Jem had not shared.

His face flaming, he had stomped to the door, wrenching it open and slamming it behind him as he stepped out into the night. Mallie and Kay had both risen to go after him but Mother Teeg had stopped them, saying that he wouldn't go far. Sure enough, when Mallie made her way to her bed above the smithy after her own bath, peeking into the small storeroom where Gelath had put up a cot bed earlier, she found Jem, sprawled across the bed in the too large clothes Gelath had lent him and which he had belted around his waist. Moonlight caressed the smooth planes of his clean face, highlighting his paleness into luminosity.

Mallie had felt a frisson of hot excitement run through her then. But before she could act, although she still wasn't sure _quite_ what she would have done, she had heard footsteps below. Hastily abandoning her post, she had scurried silently to her own bed, diving under the covers and burying herself in them.

Surprisingly, sleep had come quickly. It had been a dreamless sleep as well, something for which she was grateful for, now that it was her turn to watch over Faith.

Kay had woken her after what had felt like only minutes, one hand over Mallie's mouth and one hand held to her lips in a silent warning. After her initial panic, Mallie had calmed quickly, nodding under Kay's restraining hand.

"Wake Val when Teegara next comes in to check on Faith," Kay had whispered, moving away from Mallie to climb into her own bed.

"What about Liss?" Mallie had whispered back. Kay had taken the first watch and a glance at the night sky through the window at the end of the loft was enough to tell Mallie that a sizeable portion of the night had passed. Certainly more than a quarter.

"Don't think it's a good idea to have her up in the night, dwelling over what's happened," came Kay's terse whisper. The lumpen shape under the bedclothes hunched a shoulder. "The sleep'll do her good too."

Mallie had hurried to the dark house next to the forge, resisting the urge to peek in on Jem one more time. Kay hadn't been asleep then. She didn't know if she'd be able to resist a second time when she went back to her bed. Mother Teeg had been waiting for her in Faith's room with a few instructions on what to look out for in the night and then she had disappeared back to her bed, leaving Mallie alone with Faith.

Since then, although Mallie had been staring at Faith the whole time, her thoughts had been drawn more and more towards Jem. Privately, she resolved to apologise tomorrow for laughing at him. She would explain to him that she had not been laughing at him, not really. It was just the stubborn, defiant look on his pink-cheeked face... and then Gelath had laughed...

Maybe it would be best if she did not mention the expression on his face after all.

Faith stirred slightly, frowning a little in her sleep. Mallie didn't notice.

**l**

The last time Jool made her rounds before the end of her shift, she was surprised to find that not only did Jonas still have a visitor, but that that visitor wasn't a member of SG-1. Thinking about it, she shouldn't have been surprised at all. After all, Jonas' visitor had once been a member of SG-1.

"Morning," she said softly.

Jumping slightly, the Captain looked up. Blinking, he ran a hand over his bleary eyes and down his face. "Morning," he said in a scratchy voice that sent shivers down her spine, and cleared his throat.

"Coffee?" Jool asked as she checked Jonas' vitals and discretely made sure that none of the tubes draining out of him were clogged.

"Thanks, Doc..." he sighed.

Jool smiled at him, "One pot of coffee, coming up."

"You're a lifesaver," the Captain told her, his eyes fixed on Jonas Quinn.

Jool's smile turned slightly bitter and she turned on her sensible, rubber-soled shoes to go. Of course she was, she thought cynically to herself, stung more by his careless attitude and words than she liked to admit, even to herself.

"Doc," the Captain called softly and she swung back around, ready to demand what he wanted now. The expression on his face as he sat there, one hand resting over Jonas', stopped her. "I mean it," he said, holding her eyes with his intent gaze as he drove his point home. "Thanks."

"Oh," Jool blushed. "Um, thank you. For your thanks. But it's, well, my job, really." Oh God, she thought desperately as the blush spread to her neck and beyond. Could she make any more of a hash of this? "I'll go get coffee," she blurted, forcing her jellied legs to work.

Jool escaped into the corridor, an amused chuckle following at her heels. Leaning back against the smooth cold concrete of the wall, she forced herself to breathe slowly, in and out, fighting to get the blush she hated under control. Once she was certain that she had herself under control, she pushed herself away from the wall, walking calmly down the hall and ignoring the fizzing sensation low in her belly.

She'd thought she was over this! That since the revelation of his origin she had managed to force herself to forget the attraction she had felt for the Captain. Apparently not. Apparently all it took to get past her carefully constructed defences was the sleepy, rumpled sight of him.

At least now she would be on her guard, she reassured herself. She knew what to expect when she dropped off his coffee and she would be ready for it. She... Oh, who was she kidding?

**l**

At least this time when Mallie was shaken awake, it was daytime. Just. Although the sky was light enough for it to be considered day, the sun had yet to haul itself fully over the horizon, peeping shyly into the sky and turning the woolly cloud fingers a brilliant fiery red.

"How is Faith?" Mallie asked quickly, sitting bolt upright.

"The same," Kay replied. "Time to get up."

"Why?" Mallie asked with a frown, yawning and giving serious consideration to lying back down, sticking her head under the pillow and going back to sleep.

"Training," Kay told her. "If you get up now, I'll see if I can find some chocolate when we get back."

Mallie's eyes lit up.

**l**

After handing over to Caroline at the end of her shift, Jool wearily made her way to the mess. She'd been up for over twenty-four hours now and, even with her supernatural stamina, she was starting to feel the strain. Grabbing a tray and a cup of coffee, she drank the coffee while she filled her tray, going back for a second cup when she was done. Sitting at one of the many deserted tables, she quickly devoured her meal, drinking two more cups of coffee in the process. When she was done she sat back in her chair with a satisfied sigh. She felt far more human, and ready to face the day.

Getting up, she neatly stacked her used try and plates away and then, cradling a fifth cup of coffee, headed towards her office to get some work done. Yes, it was Sunday. Yes, it was her day off. Yes, she had nothing better to do and, yes, she really was that sad. Besides, she wasn't caffeinated enough for the gym yet, but now she was too wired to sleep. She'd never liked sleeping in the day anyway, not even before she'd been Called.

As she walked through the corridors she realised for the first time that, despite the fact that there was only a skeleton staff working on a Sunday, she was getting a lot more respect from the SGC personnel than she had when she had first arrived. People were making eye contact with her now and several went so far as to smile or say good morning to her. Jool smiled to herself. Slowly, SG-13 was being accepted by the close-knit base. And without ever having to reveal that the Captain was their precious General O'Neill's clone!

Opening her office door, she almost dropped the cup of coffee she was holding, coming to a sudden halt just inside the door. Speak of the devil, she thought faintly.

"Morning, Doc!" the Captain said cheerfully, his eyes twinkling as he sat in Jool's chair, his legs propped up on her desk and his handheld games console lying loosely in his hands on his lap.

"What... on Earth...?" Jool managed to say, shutting the door behind her and moving further into her office.

"The bedside vigil got crowded," he told her, the twinkle in his eyes dimming slightly but not fading. "Figured I'd better get out of there before Caroline started kicking people out."

By which, Jool translated, he meant that Doctor Jackson had arrived and he'd left. She sighed. He really couldn't keep avoiding the man. It was bound to draw attention. She was opening her mouth to point that out when the door behind her opened and the two other members of her team traipsed into her office.

Jool gaped at them. The Captain she could understand, but what were _they_ doing here? It was their day off, neither of them lived on the base; they had no possible reason for being here.

"Hey!" Andrew greeted her enthusiastically while Oz managed to somehow nod simultaneously at both her and the Captain. It was creepy how he could do that. "Jonas awake yet?"

"Not yet," Jool replied patiently, explaining it to him yet again. "It'll be a few days before we can bring him out of the coma."

"That blows," said Andrew. He brightened, looking past her, at the Captain. "I found a spell we can use to find Faith once we're on Langara," he told him, pushing past Jool.

"And you came all this way, just to tell little old me?" Jool asked the young watcher with saccharine sarcasm and a perfectly straight face as she batted her eyelashes at him and rested one hand on her bosom.

"Uh... no," said Andrew, looking at her as though she was crazy. "I came because Jon called and told me I had to."

"That explains it," Jool muttered to herself as the Captain protested.

"Hey!" he said indignantly. "I never said you had to! I just said I'd come get you if you didn't."

"You said it with menace," Andrew retorted with a sniff.

"Did not!" said the Captain.

"Did too!" Andrew told him. "I'm from Sunnydale, I know menace when I hear it!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

Jool sighed. She had a feeling she was going to have a headache by the end of the day.

**l**

Her shoulder throbbed painfully. It also itched, burned and ached. Her head felt kinda foggy and hurt a little, a nagging pain that sharpened as soon as she became aware of it. The sun was lying across her face, leaving her head toastily warm while the rest of her was uncomfortably cool. She could hear someone breathing in the room with her, the rustle of their clothing and the faint thrub-thrub thrub-thrub of their heart. Her mouth was dry.

At least she could do something about that, thought Faith, trying to swallow. It didn't work. Her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth and her throat closed in on itself. That was some thirst. She swallowed again, and then a third time. Finally saliva began to flow in her mouth, offering her a short term relief.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes, not really ready to wake up yet but aware that she desperately needed something to drink and a piss. Not necessarily in that order. The last thing she remembered was arriving on Camelot. She had no idea how long she'd been unconscious or what had happened but in the back of her mind, she was fully expecting to be brought up to date by whichever of the slayers happened to be sitting there. Which was why, when she opened her eyes, she was so surprised and alarmed to discover that she didn't recognise the middle-aged woman sitting by her bed at all.

"Who the fuck are you?" Faith demanded croakily.

The woman, whose grey-streaked head had been nodding down to her chest, jumped and her eyes flew open as one hand came up to her chest.

"Oh, you scared me!" she said, noticing Faith swallowing again and getting to her feet. "I'm Mother Teeg," she told Faith, pouring her a glass of water and bringing it over to her. "You're in Camelot, my dear."

Drinking thirstily, Faith stopped to ask, "Where are the others?"

"Valencia said something about training..." Mother T said thoughtfully. "I told her to keep a careful eye on Nya and make sure she didn't over-exert herself. That was a few hours ago. I hope they're alright."

"I want to see them," Faith told her, finishing her water and struggling pushing herself up into a sitting position despite the pain in her shoulder.

"You'll see them when they get back," Mother T told her firmly, propping a pillow behind her so Faith could relax back into it. "You're in no fit state to go chasing after them. That bullet we dug out of your shoulder was a nasty thing."

"I'm five by five," Faith said stubbornly, throwing the covers off of her and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Standing, she ignored the way that her head spun and began looking for her clothes. "Where's my bra?"

"Your what?" Mother T asked with a frown, clearly confused.

"Small piece of black clothing," Faith told her, sketching the shape of a bra in the air, accustomed to explaining things like this to the other slayers. "Goes over your shoulders and fastens in back to support your rack."

"I am afraid that I had to cut it off you to heal your shoulder," Mother T said regretfully. "You really shouldn't be up."

"Great," scowled Faith. "Fucking great!" She didn't always wear a bra but she'd been counting her lucky stars that she'd been wearing one when she went through the 'Gate. Now she was down to just panties.

"It might be possible to repair it," said Mother T with a thoughtful frown.

"So where's the rest of my clothes?" asked Faith. She'd have to get dressed to go and find the others. Mother T stared at her and Faith could feel that the older woman had pitted her will against hers. "Don't make me go out there looking for them like this," she warned. "I'll do it!"


	24. The Unknown Slayer of PWhatever

**A/N**

Happy New Year! How go the resolutions? I'm feeling all virtuous because I've updated three fics today. :)

You might have noticed that this story has suddenly jumped from second in a series to fourth. Um, yeah. About that. So, I was successfully avoiding my real life issues by ploughing through this chapter when I suddenly got blocked on the last four scenes I needed to write. Rather than deal with real life (a scary place) I went into hibernation for three days and when I emerged, I'd finally written the prequel to Visions of Vampires. Then I went back and finished this chapter. Now I seem to have some form of RSI in my left wrist. :S

_Lost, in LA_ is up and I'm posting a chapter a day until it's all up. There's fourteen of them but don't get too excited. Hardly any are over a thousand words. It's a fast-paced fic though, unlike this one. Talking of this one, I checked out the stats for the first time in, well, ever and realised that Slayers in Space is the fifth longest fic in this category! :S We're not even halfway through the season yet. The problem is, I have to show what happens between episodes or Faith's story makes no sense. Gotta figure out a way to speed things up. I'd like to get this story told before I'm thirty! And I'm rambling... Gotta stop that.

Updates... There's good news and bad news. Good news is, it's an episode chapter next so it should be quite straightforward to write. Bad news is, I haven't written any of it yet. And if it's not up by the 25th of January, don't expect it for at least two more weeks because... that's when I'm flying to New York!! *squeals in excitement*

Enjoy!

**The Unknown Slayer of P-Whatever**

Outside the village walls of Camelot, a crowd of men had gathered around the fenced off enclosure of the tourney grounds. The large grassy area was not just in use during the tournament season, when the men of Camelot battled against those of other nearby villages, it was also used as a year-round training arena. The men standing on the sidelines had originally come to practise their skills for the nearby day when Arthur would return but had found the grounds occupied by a small group of women, and a boy. Ordinarily, this would have been a scandalous outrage, but these were no ordinary women. They travelled with Faith of the Tau'ri, who had freed Camelot from the curse of the Black Knight and they fought with skill against Valencia of the Sword, who had bested every man in battle.

Although the tourney grounds were spacious (necessary when you're staging a pitched melee) the men were loathe to enter and risk disturbing the women. Not only because it was an awe-inspiring thing of beauty and a once-in-a-lifetime treat to watch them, but also because each man was secretly worried that if they did, the women might turn their attention to them. Instead, they lounged against the fence, picking apart each female's fighting technique and other, more personal, assets. It was only a matter of time before someone produced a barrel of ale and bets began. They were blissfully unaware that every word they uttered could be heard by the slayers on the field.

Not that they were listening. Oh, no... they were having too much fun. Mallie and Kay were going toe to toe with Valencia and Liss while Nya, restricted to light duties by Kay on account of her recent head injury, sparred with Jem, teaching him moves that she had learnt from Faith and the others and picking up the occasional new one. It took a major disturbance at the fence line to attract first Kay and then everyone else's attention. The men were backing respectfully away from a lithe dark-haired woman in olive green clothing as she sauntered towards the fence, Val's little brother, Ramus, trotting ahead of her.

"Faith!" Mallie squealed excitedly as Faith ducked under the fence, entering the tourney grounds.

"No!" called Faith as Mallie charged towards her. "Mallie!"

At the last possible second before Mallie reached her, Faith hunched down, aiming her good shoulder at Mallie's gut. Unable to stop her momentum in time, Mallie ran into her. When Mallie fell forward, Faith stood, neatly flipping Mallie down onto her back on the ground.

"No hugs," Faith warned her firmly, offering her a hand up as the others reached them, Jem trailing at the back. Weirdly she found herself feeling grateful that she'd been shot in the same shoulder that she'd already dislocated yesterday. At least she hadn't fucked up both her shoulders!

"Sorry," Mallie apologised breathlessly as she bounced back onto her feet. Now that she was closer to Faith she could see that one arm of her Tau'ri jacket hung empty from the shoulder. Beneath it, Faith's arm was supported in a sling. "You okay?"

"Five by five," Faith replied with a wide grin, making sure she took in all of them. "You guys?"

"We're good," Kay told her with a significant look.

"Guess what!" Mallie said excitedly as Faith held Kay's gaze.

The dark-haired slayer nodded imperceptibly and turned her attention to Mallie. "What?" she asked indulgently.

"Val's a slayer too!" Mallie informed her.

Faith snorted and turned to Valencia, standing at the back of the crowd surrounding her. "Val?" she smirked.

"Mallie says my name is too long," Val said shyly, shifting awkwardly.

"She's not wrong," Faith told her wryly. "Still got your sword?"

"Oh, yes!" Val grinned enthusiastically. "Kay will not let me use it though." She pouted.

"I didn't say you couldn't use it," Kay protested. "I said it wasn't fair to spar with it. None of us have swords."

"We might wanna do something about that," said Faith. "If traditional weapons are all that get through a Prior's shield, we're gonna need to stock up."

"My father is a blacksmith," Val volunteered the information helpfully.

"Remind me to talk to him," Faith said to her.

"What do we do now?" asked Jem.

"Right now?" said Faith. "We eat. Ma T says breakfast's ready."

"Wicked cool!" exclaimed Mallie. "I am starving!"

Faith snorted with laughter, and quickly covered it with a cough when Mallie looked upset. "Let's go," she said hurriedly.

"I need to fetch Clarent," Val told her. "I will catch up with you."

"Clarent?" Faith asked softly as Val bounded away.

"Her sword," said Mallie, rolling her eyes. "She named it."

"Arthur named it," Kay corrected her.

"Fine," huffed Mallie. "It is still a stupid name for a sword."

Faith couldn't help but agree with her as they moved off the field, the bickering Mallie and Kay leading the way. It was a stupid name for a sword. She fell in beside Nya, keeping a close eye on Liss and Jem as the silent pair walked ahead of them. Nya was quiet too. Faith glanced at her.

"You okay?" she asked.

"My headache is gone now," Nya informed her tonelessly.

"I meant about the other stuff," Faith said bluntly.

"Can we please not talk about this in the street?" Nya asked just as bluntly.

"Sure," said Faith. "Cool. Whatever."

Catching up with them, Val took one look at their faces and hurried forward to talk to Liss and Jem. Faith didn't look at Nya as they walked through Camelot's streets. She could feel the silence brewing between them.

"They have my daughter," the words burst from Nya's lips.

"I know," Faith said.

"What do I do?" Nya's voice was low and anguished.

"We find Praemas," Faith told her. "We kick the crap out of him and make him tell us where Adria's keeping her. Then we kill him and go get her."

"You make it sound so simple," Nya breathed.

"It's not gonna be," Faith warned her. "Plus, we got the Powers riding us to track down fuck knows how many slayers and stop the Ori invading Earth. But we'll get her back."

"Chaia..." keened Nya. "Will I ever see you again?"

"You will," Faith promised as they neared Val's house.

A fat tear streaked down Nya's face and her bottom lip wobbled.

"Ah, fuck!" muttered Faith, looking around to make sure no-one had noticed.

Everyone was staring at them. Swearing some more, Faith hustled Nya towards the house. Overtaking Val, Jem and Liss, she guided Nya through the door just behind Mallie and Kay, still bickering good-naturedly. Somehow, Faith managed to get Nya settled in a chair next to the fire before the Simarkan woman began to sob.

"What happened?" demanded Ma T, clearly concerned.

"Adria's got Chaia," Faith said awkwardly, stepping back. She didn't do crying.

"What?" said Kay, blinking in shock.

"Who's Chaia?" asked Liss.

"How the fuck?" demanded Mallie.

"Her daughter," Faith told Liss.

"Malina Greenwheat!" Kay scolded.

"You poor thing," sympathised Ma T, wrapping her arms around Nya. Nya clung to her like a drowning man to a rock, burying her face in the older woman's shoulder.

"How do you know?" asked Val.

"Praemas kinda taunted her with it," Faith told them. "I overheard."

"That sucks," Mallie said succinctly.

"Yup," agreed Faith.

**l**

Adria smiled as she looked down at the world visible through the large window in front of her. Somewhere down there was a member of her Oriclave that Faith hadn't discovered yet. Her soldiers were converting the populace on her behalf and it wouldn't be long before she set foot on it to personally oversee her Clava's instruction in Origin. Everything was starting to come together. Just as her Fathers had planned.

Unconsciously, Adria fingered the high collar of her dress and the throbbing scar that lay beneath it.

**l**

Faith stood in Ma T's back garden, slowly savouring the cigarette she was smoking. She was letting herself have this one, figuring that technically Val counted as a new slayer. Kinda. Honestly, Faith was kicking herself for not having seen the signs on her first visit to Chulak. But she hadn't been expecting to find slayers out in space and she'd been totally focussed on saving Cam at the time. Val had just been a member of the crowd back then. A member of the crowd who'd got to keep the shiny sword that Faith had defeated the holographic knight with. A sword that she'd named Clarent. Faith snorted derisively.

"Are you alright?" Kay's voice came from behind Faith and made the more experienced slayer jump. She hadn't heard Kay join her outside.

"M'cool," said Faith, glancing at her. "Wish everyone'd stop askin' me that."

"We were worried about you," Kay told her mildly.

"I know..." Faith sighed, "So what did you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Oh," said Kay, remembering their unspoken agreement on the tourney ground to talk later. "Jem and Liss. They're withdrawn and listless."

"Big surprise," said Faith. "They're worried about Jonas."

"You might want to talk to them," suggested Kay. "Give them some sort of hope..."

"I'm not good with the inspiring speeches but I'll try," Faith promised, grinding her cigarette out beneath her boot. "Anything else?"

"Nya, but now I know why she's been so depressed," said Kay. She hesitated before continuing, "Do you really think we'll get Chaia back?"

"We'd better," growled Faith.

Wrapt in their own thoughts, the two women stood silent for a moment before Kay remembered why she'd come looking for Faith in the first place. "Are you coming in for breakfast?" she asked Faith.

"In a minute," Faith told her. "You go ahead."

"Are you sure?" Kay checked.

"Yup," Faith confirmed, staring off into the distance.

Reluctantly, Kay left Faith alone. Faith savoured the moment. Except for sleeping, she'd spent most of God knew how long surrounded by slayers. She could feel muscles she hadn't even known were tense begin to relax.

It didn't last long. All too soon, Faith found herself replaying yesterday's battle in her mind. They had been so close to Earth. The iris had been open. But here she was, back where she'd started on Camelot. And things were so much worse than they had been then. Now she was responsible for five slayers, pledged to reunite a mother with her daughter, charged by The Powers That Be to somehow prevent Earth's invasion, with no way of contacting the SGC, injured, had no idea where to go or what to do next, and she was craving another cigarette.

"Definitely worse," she decided.

**l**

Jool surveyed the crowded room with amusement. Caroline would not be pleased that her two visitors to a bed rule wasn't being observed. All three of the original members of SG-1 were hovering over Jonas' bed. Daniel and Sam were bickering good-naturedly about the details of a long-ago mission while Teal'c listened to them with a slight smile and an amused look in his eyes.

"Sorry to break up the party," Jool interrupted them with an apologetic smile. "But it's time for Jonas' treatment."

"Good morning, Daniel," Vala chirped beside Jool, wiggling her fingers at him.

"Morning," Daniel mumbled, getting up out of his seat. "We'll, uh, get out of your way."

"No need to leave on my account..." Vala smiled brightly at him, tossing her bunches back over her shoulders. She sighed as he left with his teammates, visibly wilting. "Sometimes I think Daniel doesn't like me," she said mournfully.

"He likes you," Jool reassured her, handing her the healing device. "Now focus."

"I'm focussed," Vala said quickly. "Honest."

**l**

In his penthouse offices on Earth, Ba'al was reviewing a dossier with a growing sense of frustration and a frown. The dossier contained all of the surveillance logs his minions had been able to acquire on the Watchers Council's operation thus far. It had not been easy to compile them. Even Goa'uld surveillance technology refused to work on the Watchers property. Worse, they seemed somehow able to sense his teams, growing suspicious whenever they were near.

Ba'al was looking for a pattern, a chink in their armour. It wasn't one he had found yet. He hadn't managed break into their computer system yet either. It was protected by layers of coding that even he hadn't been able to crack.

It really was very... irritating. Although mentions of the Watchers Council were scattered throughout Earth's historical archives, it appeared that nowadays they were a far more secretive and paranoid organisation. Furthermore, not one source he had discovered thus far spoke of their purpose or the reason for the young girl who always accompanied them. And why just one girl? The reports in front of him showed that the Watchers Council was swamped with females. By his agents' estimate, they outnumbered the males in the organisation almost five to one. Why so many?

There was something else about them that was niggling at him. The historical records indicated that the girl that the Watchers Council presumably watched had advanced senses and abilities. What if all the women working for the Watchers Council and all of the girls under their care had that ability?

Working quickly, Ba'al separated the contents of the dossier into two piles, operations when the surveillance team had been detected and operations when they hadn't; leaving him with one large pile and one small pile, respectively. He reached for the small pile, skimming through the contents. By the time he had finished, he was fairly certain that all the females working with the Watchers Council would prove to be hok'taurs. He knew what they were sensing too.

Making a note to pull his Goa'uld agents off the surveillance patrols, Ba'al turned his attention back to the problem of gaining access to their servers. He'd thought he'd finally breached their security last night and then his computer had suddenly shut down and refused to start again. It was ridiculous! Even the SGC didn't have such good protection and he still wasn't able to fully crack their system. He suspected that they kept the majority of their mainframe separated from the rest of the system in a secure loop. You would have to actually...

One of Ba'al's eyebrows rose as an idea occurred to him. The Watchers Council might be impenetrable but other organisations were not. Organisations such as the United States Government, for example. The Watchers Council had a team working at the SGC, it was inconceivable that the US government wouldn't have files on them. Files that would no doubt be most illuminating. Chuckling, Ba'al switched on his new computer.

**l**

After breakfast, Faith hustled the slayers back outside for more training, overriding Ma T's insistence that she rest. Ma T meant well, but the last thing Faith needed right now was to be cooped up inside, playing the battle over and over in her head, wondering what she could have done differently. She suspected that Liss and Jem felt the same too. Nya seemed to have withdrawn completely into her shell now and the Langaran pair weren't far behind her. Even Kay seemed quiet and thoughtful. The only one who was anything like her normal self was Mallie and she was totally hyper. Almost like she was showing off for someone. Val maybe?

Faith shut the front door on Ma T with a sigh of relief. It wasn't that she didn't like the woman, it was just that all the mothering was... well, smothering. She wasn't used to this level of interference. Even Linda, her first watcher hadn't been this bad.

"Faith," called Val, standing a little further down the street. "You wanted to meet my father?"

"Yeah," said Faith, hoping, as she walked towards her, that he wouldn't be anything like his wife.

"Faith, meet Gelath, my father," Val introduced her to the large sweaty man who was standing beside the forge, grinning at them. "Father," her voice was reverent, "This is Faith of the Tau'ri."

"Greetings, Milady!" boomed Gelath, bending at the waist in an awkward bow. "Might I take the opportunity to thank you for ridding us of the Black Knight?"

Faith shifted awkwardly, "It was nothing," she brushed off his gratitude. "Call me Faith. Seriously."

"As you wish," Gelath said agreeably. "Now, what is so important that you could not wait until tonight to speak to me?"

"They need weapons," Val informed him.

"Knives, axes, swords..." Faith added. "Whatever you got lyin' around. We can trade for 'em," she offered, bellowing, "Kay!"

Kay looked up, intercepting Faith's look and detached herself from the others, drifting over. Gelath in the meantime, was vehemently protesting the idea that they pay him.

"But-" Faith objected.

"I insist!" boomed Gelath. "It is the least I could do for the saviour of Camelot!"

Faith scowled at her boots as the tips of her ears turned red. She really didn't like this whole 'saviour' business. She wasn't a hero like Buffy or Angel. She was the fuck-up. The slayer who went bad. People didn't thank her, they were scared of her.

"So that is settled then?" enquired Val.

"What's settled?" asked Kay.

"Gelath's gonna give us weapons," Faith told her. "He won't let me pay."

Kay frowned, unable to understand why Faith was so upset about that. They had little left with which to trade, having left most of their belongings and almost all of the tel'tak's cargo behind on Langara. They were in dire need of weapons, especially ones that would work on Adria and the Priors. Where was the problem?

"Thank you," she said gratefully to Gelath.

"'Tis an honour," Gelath told her with a wide grin. "I am ashamed that I didn't think of it earlier. I figured you would have your own weapons."

"We do," Kay assured him. "It's just that they don't always work on our enemies."

Gelath frowned, "Then how do you know that the weapons I give you will work?"

"They will," Faith told him authoritatively. "It's the high-tech stuff, zats, guns and staffs, that don't work."

"Are you going to train now?" Gelath asked them after a moment's confusion caused by the unfamiliar words.

"Yup," said Faith as Val and Kay nodded.

"I might have enough swords for you now," Gelath told them. "Give me but one moment."

Turning, he hurried back into his forge, walking through an open door at the back into some sort of storage area. As soon as he was out of sight, Faith turned to Valencia.

"Val, you gotta convince him to let me pay."

"Why?" asked Val, startled.

"Good question," Kay added her two cents to the conversation.

"It's not right," Faith said weakly. "Your dad was expecting to sell that stuff. I don't wanna cost your family money."

"We don't have a lot to trade," Kay warned her.

"I don't care," Faith told her. "We owe these people something."

"You owe us nothing!" Val told Faith passionately. "If anything we owe you. You saved us from Merlin's Curse..." Faith grimaced, "It is a debt that cannot be paid. Let us show our thanks."

Faith opened her mouth to argue back and shut it again as Gelath appeared, his arms laden with swords. The look on her face though, told Val and Kay that the argument wasn't over. Drawn by the sight of weapons, the others headed towards them.

"Apologies," said Gelath, grimacing regretfully as he reached them. "I have but four swords; I must make two more for you. But I have more than enough training swords to go round."

"We don't wanna put you out," Faith said as he handed her a dull-edged sword. "Four is good."

"How long will it take to make two more?" Kay stubbornly asked Gelath, ignoring Faith's glare.

"I can have one finished by midday," Gelath informed her as Mallie, Liss and Jem joined them. "For Milady however," he said respectfully, handing the newcomers their practice weapons, "I will craft a sword."

"Milady?" Mallie questioned with a giggle as Val's eyebrows rose in surprise.

Faith looked narrowly at the newest slayer. Something had just gone over Faith's head and she didn't like it. What if it was something important?

"How long will that take?" Kay asked him.

Gelath squinted up at the sky and scratched his head. "I reckon..." he said. "I can have it done by sundown tomorrow."

"Thanks for the sword!" Mallie said enthusiastically as she gave it an experimental swing, causing Faith, Kay and Liss to have to jump out of the way.

"Watch it!" Faith snapped, as Kay disarmed her with one hand. Mallie pouted.

"No more swords for you until you know how to use one," Kay said sternly.

Mallie's pout reached epic proportions.

"Let's go," Faith ordered. "Thanks, Gelath."

"My pleasure, Milady," beamed Gelath as they began to move off.

"Call me Faith!" Faith yelled back.

Galeth sighed happily as he watched them walk out of sight. "Yes, Milady..." he said to himself, walking back inside. The sound of a hammer striking metal began to ring out through the crowded street like a bell.

**l**

Having noted some minor hyperdrive fluctuations into his log during the long trip back from the Pegasus galaxy, when they continued once they were back in their home galaxy Colonel Emerson made the decision to pull the Odyssey out of hyperspace to run some diagnostics on the engine. The massive Earth-built ship hung in space, perfectly capable of using its sublight engines to manoeuvre but not finding the need. It was alone.

The nearest sun was light years away, orbited by a planet with a Stargate. Standard protocol, in case they were unable to get the hyperdrive engine back on line and were forced to call on Earth for help. Emerson was keeping a close eye on the hyperdrive diagnostic program while it ran, when Major Marks suddenly frowned.

"Sir," he said, getting Emerson's attention. "We're detecting a ship in orbit around the planet on long-range sensors. It's an Ori Mothership, sir."

**l**

Adria smiled as she regarded the planet before her. Her soldiers' victory was complete, as she'd known it would be. Even now, her Priors were leading the population in their first Prostration. It was time to make her entrance.

Adria gave the order to land.

**l**

"Has it noticed us?" Colonel Emerson asked immediately, abandoning his position in front of the hyperdrive display for his chair.

"Not yet, sir," Marks informed him. "Sensors indicate... that it's landing, sir."

The surprise in Marks' voice echoed Emerson's own. As far as they were aware, Ori ships rarely landed, and never without another Mothership in orbit. Landing left a ship more vulnerable to attack; a sitting target until they could take off and escape the planet's gravity well for the freedom of space.

"Keep tracking it," Emerson ordered. "I want to know the minute they realise we're here. And send a subspace message to the SGC, notifying them of the situation."

"Yes, sir," Marks obeyed.

**l**

Liss and Jem weren't working out, Faith decided. Liss was holding back too much, letting Jem get the upper hand, which was making him both cocky and sloppy. Breaking them up, she paired Liss off with Nya and gave Jem to Kay to work with. Mallie was having a one to one training session with Val.

At first, the new combination seemed to work, and Faith let her mind wander. She and Val had given a demonstration when they arrived and Val had let her win, something that had pissed Faith off. She had known that Val was holding back, even if the others didn't, and the victory she'd been given tasted bitter. The real kicker was that she probably could beat Val if she had more than one good arm and she suspected that Val knew that. At least they had the rematch to look forward to. Faith grinned.

"Faith!" called a masculine voice and Faith turned to see the guy she remembered was the leader here walking across the field towards them.

What was his name? Faith tried to remember. Governor something. Governor N-? Governor M-? Meh? Merrick? No, that was B's first watcher...

"Governor!" she called back, opting for safety as she strolled to meet him. "What's the what?"

Governor Whatshisface looked confused, "Pardon?"

"What brings you here?" Faith translated with a sigh. She was getting good at explaining stuff, she thought absently.

"I heard that you had awakened and could not resist the urge to come and see for myself," the Governor told her. "I looked for you first at Gelath and Teegara's house and Teegara directed me here. Are you certain it is wise for you to be so active so recently after such a grievous injury?"

Mentally decoding his speech, Faith smirked, "You shoulda seen me earlier," This guy spoke worse Gilesish than the G-man himself!

Catcalls from the fence-line drew her attention and she looked around sharply, wondering what they were looking at. It wasn't hard to guess. Nya and Liss were going at it like cats and dogs. Their swords pretty much forgotten, they were using them to bludgeon one another between punches, kicks and throws. The others had stopped fighting, moving to break them up.

"Let 'em fight it out!" Faith told them, jogging over. "It'll do 'em both good."

"What good can come of this?" asked the Governor, panting as he trotted up. His expression as he stared at the two brawling women was horrified.

"Governor Meurik!" Val greeted him with surprise.

"They have issues," Faith told him. "They're working them out."

"But you will stop them?" Meurik asked anxiously. Jem and the other slayers looked at Faith, wondering what her answer would be.

"Sure," shrugged Faith as Nya landed a particularly vicious blow to Liss' gut with her sword.

"When?" Kay quietly asked her.

"First blood," Faith said nonchalantly. Liss punched Nya on her recently flattened nose and Faith cocked her head to one side. "And... there it is. Kay, Val, with me," she ordered.

The two other slayers flanked Faith on either side as she strode towards the grappling pair. Mallie pouted but stayed behind with Jem and Governor Meurik as Faith waded into the fight, her injured shoulder still supported in a sling. Grabbing hold of Nya by the scruff of the neck, Faith physically lifted her off Liss and handed her to Val. Val clung tightly to Nya as she squirmed in an attempt to break free. Picking herself up off the ground, Liss launched herself at Nya, only to be intercepted by Kay grabbing hold of her and using her own momentum to flip her onto the ground.

"Enough!" Faith said sharply and both Nya and Liss stilled, looking at her. "You're embarrassing me," Faith told them. "Fuck, you're embarrassing yourselves! Get your head in the game and leave your shit at the door or you'll end up dead. And you won't be any good to Chaia, Jonas or me if you're dead. Next time I'll throw a bucket of water over you," she warned, giving the nod to Val and Kay to release them. "Nya, pair with Mallie. Liss, you're with Val."

"But she boke by dose," Nya objected. "Abgain!"

"Yeah, lemme set that," Faith said, approaching her.

Nya backed away from her, her arms outstretch to ward her off, "Doe!"

"Now's the perfect time to set it, Ny," Faith said reassuringly, continuing to move towards her. "While it's still broken."

"Doe," Nya protested. "Doe! Ow. _Ow_!"

Feeling distinctly nauseous, Governor Meurik quietly absented himself from the tourney grounds without anyone noticing.

"There," Faith said with satisfaction. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Almost looks like it used to too." She tipped her head to one side, "Hang on."

"Oww!"

**l**

Jool stretched slowly as she got up from her chair. "Coffee?" she offered.

"I'm good," said the Captain, absorbed in his computer game.

"Please," yawned Vala.

"No, thanks," declined Andrew. "I'm detoxing." The Captain looked up, staring at him and Andrew flushed. "What?" he said defensively.

"Who _are_ you?" the Captain asked him as Jool put the kettle on, stifling a yawn behind her hand.

Her phone rang as she was spooning coffee into mugs and Jool sighed. "Someone get that," she called over her shoulder.

"Me!" claimed Vala, diving for it. "Jool's office," she said throatily. "Oh, hi, Walter. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. Will do. Bye!"

"What was all that about?" the Captain asked her, grinning.

"General Landry wants to see us in the briefing room," said Vala.

"All of us?" asked the Captain with a frown. "Walter say what it was about?"

"Something about a subspace communication from the Odyssey," Vala shrugged. "He said it was urgent."

"I wonder what he wants," mused Andrew as Jool switched the kettle off.

"Only one way to find out," said the Captain, stuffing his game into his pocket and getting up. "Let's go kids."

They followed him out of Jool's office, and through the hallway, piling into one of the lifts. As the doors slid shut, the Captain spoke.

"I've got five bucks on a hyperdrive malfunction," he said.

"Alien encounter," Andrew put forward his theory.

"I bag a distress call," said Jool.

"From Odyssey or to them?" asked the Captain.

"Either," shrugged Jool.

"Pick one," the Captain told her.

"To them."

"Trouble with the Ori," said Oz as the doors opened.

"Ooh," admired Andrew. "Good one. Vala?"

"All the good ones are gone," pouted Vala.

"You must be able to think of something," said Jool.

"They're under attack by an extra-dimensional creature," suggested Vala.

"Unlikely..." commented the Captain.

"Could happen," Oz said as they reached the briefing room. Vala beamed at him, completely missing the frown Daniel Jackson directed at her. Jool caught it though and she grinned. He was jealous! He really did like Vala. She knew it!

"What's going on?" the Captain asked as they took their seats, Vala sitting beside Doctor Jackson. Jool's grin spread and the Captain glanced curiously at her. Jool wiped it from her face and paid attention to General Landry as he spoke.

"We've received a subspace communication from the Odyssey," Landry told them. "They dropped out of hyperspace to run some diagnostics on the hyperdrive-"

"Pay up!" crowed the Captain. He cleared his throat as the General glared at him. "Sorry, sir."

"What sort of problem-?" Colonel Carter began to ask.

"Nothing they can't handle," General Landry told her. "While they were running the diagnostic, they detected an Ori ship orbiting a planet on their long range sensors."

"You were saying?" Oz murmured to the Captain.

"Fortunately, the Mothership doesn't seem to have detected them yet," Landry continued. "It landed on the planet shortly after they began monitoring it."

"What can we do, sir?" asked Colonel Mitchell.

"The planet has a Stargate," Landry told him. "This is the perfect opportunity to get a good look at just what happens directly after the Ori conquer a planet."

"Nothing good," Vala said darkly.

"I want you to 'Gate to P3X-29J, to covertly assess the situation and offer our assistance to any resistance you might find there. The Odyssey will continue to monitor the situation and provide assistance if you need it."

"All of us?" the Captain asked. "Together? Aren't we a trifle... conspicuous?"

"You'll arrive separately," Landry informed him.

"What about Jonas?" Jool asked. "And Operation LIM?

"Jonas Quinn will still be here when you get back," General Landry told her. "As for Operation LIM, as long as the problems with the hyperdrive have been fixed, SG-13 is to remain onboard the Odyssey to carry it out."

"When do we leave?" inquired Teal'c.

"We're liaising with the Odyssey," said the General. "I don't want to send you into the middle of a battle. Consider yourselves on standby."

"Yes, sir," the military personnel responded, standing as General Landry did. The rest of the room followed suit.

"So, darling," Vala turned to Daniel as General Landry left the room, batting her eyelashes outrageously. "Sleepover at mine tonight?"

Daniel rolled his eyes and Jool found herself wanting to bang their heads together. That, or lock them in a room together until Vala finally worked up the guts to actually jump him. Sure she could talk the talk, but her friend seemed to have issues walking the walk. Jool wondered if locking them up would help or not. Mind you, it was sort of amusing, watching them dance around one another.

"Penny for 'em," the Captain murmured in her ear and Jool jumped, shivering slightly as her skin prickled in response to his hot breath.

Focus, she told herself, and checked to make sure Vala and Daniel were out of earshot. "Just thinking about Doctor Jackson and Vala," she said evenly. "Double or nothing says they get together before the Ori attack Earth."

"Spacemonkey and the Loony Toon?" he scoffed. "You're on!"

**l**

It wasn't just on the tourney field that the slayers were stared at. Wherever they went, the locals stared and whispered. As they walked through the village on their way back to Val's for lunch, with Ramus trailing in their wake, the crowd parted for them. One or two tried to approach Faith but she froze them off with a cold glare. It was a relief to get inside and away from the non-stop attention.

"There you are!" cried Mother Teeg as they walked through the door. "I was just about to find Ramus and send him to fetch you for dinner." She frowned slightly at the small boy as he followed Jem and the slayers inside, "Except I see he already found you."

"It's not a problem, is it?" asked Faith, not wanting to cause issues between Ma T and her son. Bad enough that they were taking Val with them, something Faith wasn't sure Ma T fully understood.

"No,no," Mother Teeg hastened to assure her. "There is much that he can learn from you."

Like how to kill a man? Faith scowled at her bitter thoughts as she sat down at the loaded table.

Kay took up the conversational slack, complimenting Mother Teeg, "This all looks wonderful. You must have been working all-" She was interrupted as the door crashed open and Gelath strode inside.

"Faith!" the large man boomed. "Tell me, what is your favourite colour?"

He seated himself at the table, helping himself to food as he stared expectantly at Faith.

"Uh..." said Faith, stymied. "Black?"

"Black is not a colour," Mallie objected with a frown.

"I like it," Faith shrugged.

"So what are your plans for this afternoon?" Mother Teeg asked them as she finally sat down.

Faith glanced at the others. "More training?" she suggested.

Their reactions ranged from excited, in Mallie's case, to resigned in Jem and Nya's. Mother Teeg's forehead creased and a worried look came into her eyes.

"Do you prefer the day or night?" Gelath asked Faith and Mother Teeg's frown deepened.

"Night," Faith told him with a glance at Mother Teeg.

"I would like to check your shoulder after lunch," the healer told her.

"Sure," Faith agreed, eating some more of the meat stew. It was bland, but filling, like most of the food on the table.

"How much weight can you hold in one hand?" Gelath asked her thoughtfully.

Faith shrugged, "Dunno."

"We could find out after we've eaten," Val suggested. "Father has lots of metal in the smithy."

"A wonderful idea," Mother Teeg said sarcastically. "Why not damage her other arm?"

"We will be careful not to overload her," Val hastily assured her.

"Hmm..."Mother Teeg pursed her lips, clearly not convinced.

"Do you write with your left or right hand?" Gelath asked Faith.

In answer, Faith lifted her right arm, supported in its sling, and wiggled her fingers at him as she shovelled a large spoonful of stew into her mouth.

"And just why are you plaguing the poor girl with questions?" Mother Teeg asked him sharply.

"Do I need a reason?" Gelath asked innocently as Val bit her lip, looking between her parents.

"You must have one to be asking such foolish questions," reasoned Mother Teeg. "Out with it."

Gelath mumbled something into his stew.

"What was that?" demanded Mother Teeg.

Gelath mumbled slightly louder and this time Faith could just hear him say, "'M crafting a sword."

"I cannot hear you," Mother Teeg grumbled.

"He's making me a sword," Faith told her.

"Then he should make it, not ask silly questions," said Mother Teeg. "What difference does it make if you prefer night or..." Mother Teeg stopped talking but her mouth stayed open as a look of horrified comprehension stole across her face. She turned to her husband.

"Gelath Strongarm," she said ominously. "Tell me truly... Are you crafting?"

Gelath ducked his head, refusing to meet his wife's eyes. "I might be," he admitted.

"Gelath!" cried Mother Teeg, and her voice was equal parts accusation and reproach as she jumped up from her seat. "You promised me when we were wed that you would never craft a sword."

"I know," Gelath cringed as he stood up to face his pacing wife, his massive hands held up peacefully. "But it is for Lady Faith..."

Teegara threw her napkin at him. "You promised!"

"Hey, if it's this much trouble," Faith began to offer, wondering what the fuck was going on and what she had missed earlier.

"No," Gelath refused, shaking his head. "A warrior such as you deserves the best I can offer."

"Then forge her your best!" urged Mother Teeg. "Crafting is forbidden for a reason... it is dangerous."

"I don't wanna put you in danger," Faith said, but she was ignored by the arguing couple. The knock at the front door however, shut them both up.

"Say nothing of this," Mother Teeg warned them seriously before she went to open the door.

"What... the fuck?" Faith wondered quietly to herself as Gelath sat back down, looking uneasy.

Mother Teeg opened the door. "Governor Meurik!" she greeted with a smile, stepping aside. "So good to see you again."

"I hope I have not arrived at an importunate time," Meurik said anxiously, looking around.

"Not at all," Mother Teeg assured him. "Would you care to join us for our midday meal?"

"I thank you, no," Meurik declined regretfully. "I have come merely to extend an invitation to the warriors in our midst to a banquet held in their honour tonight."

Shit. Faith really didn't want to go, but Mallie, Kay and Val had all perked up at the thought, as had Ma T.

"Can Val's family come too?" Faith asked.

"Of course," smiled Meurik.

Faith shrugged, "Why not?"

"Excellent!" said Meurik, clapping his hands together. "I shall see you at the village hall at sundown."

"Are you sure you will not join us now?" urged Mother Teeg.

"Perhaps, a small bowl of something," Meurik caved with a smile. "Is that your famous coney pottage?"

"It is," beamed Mother Teeg, ushering him to a seat and handing him a bowl.

Governor Meurik helped himself to a large bowl of the meat stew. Faith decided that she really didn't want to know what coney was.

**l**

Jool gazed blearily at her computer screen as she drained the contents of her mug. She was supposed to be working on her report on Jonas' response to the Goa'uld healing device but she was past the point where caffeine could help keep her awake. She yawned.

Vala, curled up in an armchair with one of her books while Daniel Jackson sat with Jonas, yawned a few seconds after her. Silence fell over Jool's office. Andrew yawned, followed by Jool and then both the Captain and Vala.

"For crying out loud!" exploded the Captain. "This is ridiculous. You've got _me_ wanting to take a nap! Bed. Both of you."

"But," Jool tried to object.

"Now," he ordered. "I'll square it with Mitchell and Hank."

"Yes, sir!" Jool sketched him a mocking salute and for a brief second his expression twisted before it settled back into a blank mask. But Jool had seen the look of bitter grief on his face. "You okay?" she asked him, concerned.

"Fine," he said gruffly. "I'll be even better once you two aren't making me yawn every two seconds. Scoot!"

"You heard the man," Jool said to Vala, saving her work and shutting the computer down. "Let's go."

"Can I borrow this?" Vala yawned, waving her book in the air.

"Of course," Jool told her, checking the title. Pride and Prejudice? Should be interesting. "Let me know what you think."

"Bed," the Captain told them firmly. "Now!"

"We're going... we're going..." Jool told him, grabbing Vala and towing her out of her office. "Men!"

"I heard that!" he called out as she shut the door behind them.

**l**

The training ground cleared off pretty quickly when the men realised the slayers were coming. As soon as she had everyone paired off, Kay with Nya, Mallie with Liss and Jem with Ramus, Faith pulled Val off to one side.

"Do you wish a rematch?" Val asked with a puzzled frown and a worried glance at Faith's injured shoulder.

"Yeah, an' this time I don't want you to hold back," Faith told her. "I wanna see what you're capable of. First though, what's the deal with your dad making me a sword?"

Val glanced round but Faith had already made sure they were out of earshot. "He is not making you a sword, he is crafting one," she replied in a quiet voice.

"Okay..." said Faith. "What's the dif?" Val frowned and Faith sighed. "Just what does crafting a sword involve?" she elaborated bluntly. "Your ma said it was dangerous?"

"There is some danger," Val admitted awkwardly. "Father must speak words of power over every stage of the crafting. Each time, there is a risk that the spirit of Merlin will enter him. In the past, some crafters have become mad on Merlin's spirit and created items that did their whim, or turned on their owners. It is for that reason that crafting is forbidden and why you must not mention what my father is doing to anyone."

"He's gonna do magic," Faith simplified things. "Wicked cool. Can I watch?"

"I-" Val said, thrown by her response. "Uh... You would have to ask him."

"I will," Faith said with a grin, stepping back and raising her sword. "You ready to do this?"

Val's sword came up. "I am," she said, her jaw set in determination.

"Bring it," Faith told her.

She brought it.

**l**

"Hey, Sam," Daniel said as he stuck his head around the blonde astrophysicist's office door. "Have you seen Vala?"

"Nope," Sam told him, absorbed in the complicated-looking project she was working on. Daniel nodded and his head disappeared as he went to continue on his way. Sam frowned as his words worked their way into her conscious. "Daniel, wait!" she called, looking up. Daniel popped back into her doorframe, an enquiring look on his face. "How come you're not sitting with Jonas?" she asked, frowning in confusion. "And why are you looking for Vala? Isn't it normally the other way around?"

"Ha ha," Daniel said mirthlessly, entering her office. "Very funny, Sam. No, I wanted to make sure she was alright. She's been quiet ever since we saw Adria on that recording."

"We don't know for certain that it's Adria," Sam pointed out reasonably. "It could have been anyone. There's no way to be sure at this point."

"It's gotta be Adria," Daniel told her. "Who else do we know who has the power to switch off a MALP with their mind?"

"Priors," Sam suggested. "And the Nox are pretty advanced..."

"She didn't look like any Prior or Nox I've ever seen," said Daniel, folding his arms and setting his jaw stubbornly. "Vala's certain it was Adria."

His implication being, why wasn't Sam? Grimacing, Sam tried to explain her reasoning without backpedalling or offending her teammate, "I'm not saying it's not Adria," she said. "I'm just saying that we should keep an open mind."

Daniel's jaw softened. "I guess after ten years of working here, it's hard not to," he said with a slight smile as his arms dropped to his sides. Sam smiled back at him. "So, you haven't seen her?"

"Not since the briefing," Sam told him lightly. "You might want to check in with Doctor Wilson though. Those two are thick as thieves."

"I know," Daniel's lips twisted wryly. "I can't decide who's the worse influence. As for the other thing..." Daniel sighed. "Teal'c suggested that I not be there the next time Jon stuck his head round the door."

"Ah," Sam said succinctly.

"Yeah," Daniel shrugged, grimacing wryly.

"I'm sure he'll come round," Sam said reassuringly.

"Yeah, but when?" Daniel asked pointedly, rolling his eyes.

"Give him time," Sam suggested with a smile.

"Thanks, Sam," Daniel said, unconvinced. He gave her a twisted smile, "I'll catch you later."

"See you," Sam said, watching him wander out of her office, his hands stuffed into his pockets and his head hanging low.

Poor Daniel, thought Sam. He'd tried to keep in contact with Jon and look what had happened. Cutting off all contact with Jon when he had left the SGC had definitely been a good idea, although she hadn't been sure at the time. It meant that they worked together well now, unlike Jon and Daniel. Mind you, she suddenly realised, Jon hadn't exactly sought out her company either.

**l**

The slayers were on their way back from the training field when Faith noticed for the first time that the street they were walking down was familiar. And not just because they'd been using it all day. Ahead, an alleyway led off the street and, responding to a barely-realised impulse, Faith ducked down it.

"Faith?" said Mallie with a frown. She had been chattering happily to Faith about the banquet tonight when Faith had suddenly peeled off from the group. Now, she stopped in the entrance to the alley. "Where are you going? That is not the way back."

"Meet you back at the house," Faith called back over her shoulder, striding away. The others clustered around Mallie.

"What's happening?" Jem asked curiously.

"Where is she going?" Mallie asked Val.

"Merlin's Library," Val told her.

"Where?" asked Liss.

"It is where Merlin did his work when he was in Camelot," Val explained. "And where Doctor Jackson, the Colonels Mitchell and Carter, Teal'c and Faith began their search for the Sangraal."

"What's the Sangraal?" Liss was intrigued.

"I've got a better question," said Kay. "Why don't we go with her?"

The slayers looked at one another.

"Ramus..." Val said slowly, still meeting Kay's eyes. "Go home."

"But," Ramus pouted.

"I mean it," Val told him firmly, giving him a stern look. "Tell Mother where we went and that I wouldn't let you come."

"Very well..." Ramus sighed unhappily, reluctantly trudging away.

**l**

Merlin's Library didn't look exactly as she remembered it. There were gaping holes on the bookcases for one thing, and it was a lot messier too. Scattered here and there were things that couldn't have come from Camelot. Faith lightly brushed her fingertip around the rim of a Starbucks cup.

They'd been back. Why hadn't anyone mentioned that? Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Cam. His name lingered in her head and Faith found herself picking up the coffee cup. Had this one been his?

Footsteps and voices outside broke into her moment of uncharacteristic sentimentality and Faith whirled around to face the open door, discarding the cup for a defensive posture. Only to abandon it as Mallie, Kay, Nya, Liss, Val and Jem piled into the room.

"Thought I said I'd meet you back at the house," Faith drawled.

"We wanted to come with you," said Mallie. Beside her, Liss was looking around with interest, the first sign of animation from the Langaran slayer that Faith had seen all day.

"Val has been telling us of Merlin and his curse," added Nya.

"It wasn't a curse, it was a hologram," Faith correctly and then frowned, wondering if she was beginning to sound like Daniel. "You wanna see how it was done?"

Dumb question. Of course they did. Faith led them down to Merlin's basement. That had changed too. The treasure had gone and someone, probably either Daniel or Sam, had set up a table and chair opposite the Ancient computer and brought a load of books down.

"What happened to all the gold?" Faith asked Val.

"It was moved to a secret hiding place outside the village walls," Val told her. "There are some who believe that it may prove to be cursed. If that is not the case, it will be used to trade with other villages."

"There's other villages on this planet?" Faith asked, her eyebrows climbing. She wondered if the SGC knew about them. "Go figure."

"Figure what?" Val asked with a confused frown.

"I thought you were going to show us how Merlin cursed the village with a hologram?" Liss interrupted.

"You're gonna love this," Faith told her with a grin, leaping up onto the stone platform round the Ancient computer. "Lemme see... That one.... which moves that one..." She moved around the platform so that she could reach the plate that had risen slightly when she had touched the other one earlier. "So..."

She pushed down and everyone apart from her jumped as a white-haired old man dressed in robes suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, bathed in bright light.

"Greetings, friend," the man said, holding his arms out in welcome. "I am Merlin. The prize you seek, like the pendulum swing, marks the passage of all that is before you."

"Meet Merlin," said Faith. "He's a hologram."

"Greetings, friend," said Merlin.

"He is repeating himself," pointed out Mallie, who'd recovered well.

"The prize you seek," said Merlin, "Like the pendulum swing..."

"Yeah, he does that," said Faith. "It's all he's programmed to say."

"...all that is before you," Merlin recited. "Greetings, friend."

"Blah, blah, blah," Faith said over him. "Boring." She pushed down the first plate she had selected and Merlin vanished. "Any questions?"

"What is that?" Liss asked, gesturing at the Ancient device.

"It's the Ancient's version of a computer," Faith told her, patting it lightly. "No, you can't touch it, Sam'd kill me if we broke it." As she spoke, Faith suddenly realised that they were coming back. The desk, the mess, it all pointed to them coming back. And why wouldn't they? There were books for Daniel, although it looked like he'd taken a load already, and an Ancient computer for Sam to study. If she just stayed here...

Then Adria would win. Earth would be invaded. The Scoobies would burn. And Faith would have failed. Again.

"Are you alright?" Kay asked her quietly.

"Five by five," Faith said, shaking it off. "Hey, where's my bag?" Val blushed. "Val?"

"Doctor Jackson took it back to Earth with him, the last time he visited," Val explained, shifting awkwardly and looking guilty.

There was a story there, but Faith was too caught by the mention of Danny to pursue it. "When was he here?" she demanded eagerly. "Was Cam, Colonel Mitchell with him?"

"Almost a moon ago," Val said, shaking her head.

"Did he say if he was coming back?"

"I believe he mentioned an intention to return with Colonel Carter to Governor Meurik," Val told her.

"Did he say when?" Faith asked urgently.

Val shook her head again. "He did not," she told her regretfully.

"Damn," said Faith, jumping off the platform. "I had leather pants in that bag."

"Is that why you came here?" Kay asked her.

Faith shrugged. Truthfully, she didn't know why she'd come but she didn't know how to tell them that. Her gaze fell on the book piled up on the table opposite her and an idea occurred to her. "Figured I might do some research," she told them. "See if any of these books mention Adria or the Oriclave. Course, I wasn't expecting Danny-boy to have taken most of 'em."

"There isn't much time before the banquet," Kay reminded her.

"I know," said Faith, grimacing at the reminder.

"What if we all helped?" suggested Mallie. "We could get a lot more done."

"Cool," said Faith. "Anyone read Ancient?"

"I can, a little," volunteered Liss, already leafing through one of the books on the table. "Jonas taught me," she said, beginning to look upset.

"Great," said Faith, trying to divert her. "Translate slayer into Ancient and write it down so the others know what they're looking for. Orici and Oriclave'll be harder to translate so just put Origin. That should give us a starting point." Taking the sheet of paper that Liss had been writing on, Faith memorised the two words and handed it to Kay. "You guys start picking through the books left upstairs," she said significantly to the older slayer. "Liss and I'll look at these ones."

"Of course," Kay said immediately. "Come along everyone."

As the others filed out, back upstairs, Faith approached Liss. The blonde Langaran had her head firmly stuck in the book she was holding and Faith picked up another, leafing through it. When she had finished, she put the book to one side and picked up another, glancing at Liss. She'd relaxed her guard and was looking mournfully off into space.

"Wanna talk about it?" Faith asked, wishing she could spare a cigarette for this conversation. Liss jumped, looking guiltily at her and then down at the book she was holding. "I hear it helps," Faith added.

"What if he's dead?" the tortured words broke free from Liss almost against her will.

Faith understood how she felt. She had the same fears for Cam's safety. Like Jonas, he was only human, and far more breakable than she was.

"I'm sure he's fine," Faith reassured her.

"You don't know that!" said Liss, her eyes wide and slightly wild. "He could barely stand."

"He ended up at the SGC," Faith told her. "They'll do everything they can for him."

"What if it's not enough?" Liss whispered, her gaze turned inwards.

"Hey!" Faith said sharply and Liss came back from wherever it was her mind had gone. It wasn't too hard to guess where. "He'll be fine," Faith said firmly. "Five by five in no time."

"How do you know that?" Liss asked her.

"Because he's a stubborn son-of-a-bitch," said Faith, remembering Jonas' determination to escort them to the Stargate.

A corner of Liss' mouth moved upwards slightly. "He is stubborn," she agreed.

**l**

Adria didn't sleep. She had no need to. She understood that others did however and so she usually passed the hours away in meditation, communing with her fathers, instructing her Priors or simply exploring her powers. Those onboard her ship were fast asleep, as were the inhabitants of the nearby village. There were some exceptions to this rule, those of her soldiers patrolling the village street and the ship's hallways, the soldiers guarding the Stargate, the Prior on watch in the control chair, the men coming to attack her ship.

Adria stiffened as her mind brushed theirs. She lingered, discerning their purpose and the fact that one of them was female from their thoughts. Was this the woman she was looking for? Her mind was shielded, locked tightly, and Adria couldn't gain a purchase on it. If it was her, then perhaps mercy was called for, thought Adria. Her companions could serve as a warning.

With a thought, Adria set the men on fire, leaving the woman untouched. Her mental defences remained intact, something that was both annoying and impressive. After retreating a small distance, the woman crept forward again, to the smouldering bodies of her companions. And then she moved forward again.

Adria turned the ship's shields on, foiling the woman's approach, and alerted the Prior in the control room. The woman stayed at the shield line, moving down it, presumably testing it. Finally, just as the Prior Adria had sent and the soldiers he had gathered stepped outside the ship, the woman moved off, heading back towards the village.

Adria directed the Prior after her, turning the shield off so that they could leave, although she knew that the chase was futile. If the woman was destined to be a part of her Oriclave then she had the ability to evade them. But her powers were limited. She might be able to evade Adria's emissaries, but she would not escape her.

**l**

Jon jogged into the briefing room, two thirds of his team at his heels. They'd been cooling their heels in the Doc's office while she slept and they waited on word about the mission to P-whatever. Oz had rigged up one of the monitors in the room to a DVD player and they'd been watching Jon's emergency stash of the Simpsons when the call came in to assemble in the briefing room. Seemed Walter had learned that if you wanted to contact SG-1, you called the Doc.

They'd beaten SG-1 for once, and got the coveted seats closest to Hank in compensation for having to wait. Jon considered pulling out his DSI, but decided that Hank probably wouldn't appreciate it. Teal'c was the first to turn up, followed closely by Mitchell and Carter. Daniel was last, as usual. Apologising, he took his seat.

"So what's up, sir?" Jon asked Hank immediately, turning to him. It was a move that just happened to turn his back on Daniel.

"We just heard from the Odyssey," Hank told them. "Seems the Ori Mothership decided to turn its shields on for a few minutes."

"Why would they do that?" Andrew frowned, confused.

"Any number of reasons," Carter told him. "It could mean that they've detected the Odyssey..."

"Could mean they were under attack," suggested Cam.

"That's Colonel Emerson's assessment of the situation," Landry told him. "And I'm inclined to agree with him."

"Then, that means that there's an active resistance on P3X-29J," Daniel said excitedly. "We have to help them."

"Your orders are to evaluate the situation and offer our support to any resistance movement you find," Landry informed them. "SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran will 'Gate to the planet-"

"Vala?" surprised, Daniel looked around the table.

"Miss Mal Doran lived onboard an Ori Mothership," Landry reminded him. "She has a better understanding of it's capabilities than any other person on this base, with the possible exception of Colonel Carter."

"She was at the briefing earlier..." Jon snarked.

"I just assumed," Daniel said. "Since she's not here... Where is she anyway?"

"Napping," Oz told him succinctly. "Jool too."

"They're... napping?" Daniel asked dubiously. "Napping?" He grimaced, muttering wryly, "One hopes not together...!"

"Hey!" snapped Jon. "The Doc's been up for thirty-six hours straight and your precious Vala was drained by the healing device _twice_ today! Mitchell and I both signed off on their plan to get some sleep before we went off-world. So get your mind outta the gutter!"

Daniel reddened, staring down at the pencil he held in his hands as he searched for a comeback. Only problem was, he'd been out of line and Jon had been right to call him on it. It was Vala's fault, he decided resentfully. She got under his skin and made him itch even when she wasn't around.

"As I was saying..." General Landry resumed his briefing. "SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran will 'Gate to P3X-29J half an hour before the sunrise. Oh three hundred, our time."

"Just in time for Prostration," realised Daniel. "Fun."

"We don't have to go to that, right?" Jon asked Hank. Prostration sounded like the kind of fun he liked to avoid.

"SG-13's 'Gate slot is at oh five hundred hours," Hank informed him.

"How come they get to miss out?" Cam asked curiously.

"As I understand it, one of Doctor Wilson's superiors informed her that it's open season on the Ori," Landry informed SG-1. "Somehow, I don't think it's a good idea to expose a slayer to a Prior for that length of time on a covert mission."

"So, we get to miss it?" Jon checked.

"You do," Hank confirmed with a smile.

"Yes!" gloated Jon. He wiped the grin from his face as he caught sight of his former teammates faces. "Well, kids," he said to Andrew and Oz. "We've got an early start. Better hit the hay."

"But Homer and Bart were washed over a waterfall..." Andrew whined.

"You can finish it when we get back," Jon promised. "After you've written your report."

**l**

The banquet was worse than Faith had feared. Everyone was painfully respectful and polite, trying not to stare at her and failing. They insisted on calling her 'Lady', to the point where even Mallie had stopped giggling and was starting to roll her eyes every time one of the villagers addressed her. There had been seventeen painful courses so far and Meurik had just announced that there would be dancing after the meal. Faith found herself envying Gelath, who'd opted to stay at home to work on her sword, leaving his wife to make his excuses.

Faith plucked the rich red fabric of her dress absently. Meurik had thought of everything, from making her a present of the key to the village when they had arrived, to making sure she couldn't back out by claiming she had nothing suitable to wear. The dress she was wearing had been waiting for her when they'd got back from Merlin's library. He'd sent Mallie, Kay, Liss, Nya and Jem clothes to wear as well. From the way Val and Ma T had oohed and ahhed over them, the clothes were expensive. They were hideous as far as Faith was concerned. The long skirt swirled impractically around her ankles, wrapping itself around her legs. The neckline was higher than she'd have like it, exposing just her collarbones, and flowing sleeves impeded her arms as well.

Finally, just when Faith was sure that she'd pop if she ate anything more, Meurik stood and led them into the next room, where a bunch of musicians had already set up a bunch of weird instruments. Faith hugged the wall. If there had been a pot plant around, she'd have hidden behind it. She really didn't want to be here. The villagers gratitude and awe was grating. Faith had the feeling that if she let them, they'd worship her. It felt wrong. The musicians struck up a tune and Faith sighed, closing her eyes. Great. Classical music.

The others clustered around her stared openly at the villagers as they began an intricate and stately dance. It looked insanely difficult; nothing like the kind of dancing Faith was used to. Meurik, like several others including Ma T, not dancing, smiled at them as he approached. Faith wondered if it was too early to leave.

"You are not dancing?" he asked them in his rich voice.

"Don't know the moves," Faith told him.

"They are easy to learn," Meurik said. "I am sure there are many men here who would be eager to teach you. Or perhaps you could teach us a dance from Earth?"

Faith grinned at the thought of Meurik's face if she started dancing. Not that she could dance to this. "I don't think you could handle an Earth dance," she said to him.

"I don't know..." Kay said thoughtfully. "The Macarena's not that hard."

"No," Faith said, horrified at the thought. "No!"

"What is the 'Macarena'?" Meurik asked.

"It is really easy!" Mallie told him excitedly. "It goes like this..."

Closing her eyes, Mallie recited from memory, gracefully performing the accompanying movements, "Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena. Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena. Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena. Hey Macarena!"

"It appears simple enough," Meurik said thoughtfully. "The tune is basic too."

"No," Faith said weakly, seeing where this was leading.

"Do you think you could teach it to the minstrels?" Meurik asked Mallie.

"Oh, yes!" Mallie said blithely, oblivious to the black glare Faith was sending her.

A few minutes later, Faith's worst fears had been realised. Mallie, Kay and Nya were teaching the locals to dance the Macarena while the band invented a tune to match the fast-paced lyrics. Even Meurik, Ma T, Jem and the other slayers were dancing. Faith stared at the room in horror. This had to be a definite contender for Weirdest Sight Ever. A bunch of people dressed in medieval clothing, dancing the Macarena. Bizarre. At least things couldn't get any worse. Maybe she could slip out now while nobody was looking...

"Faith!" Mallie bounced up in front of her, grinning happily. "Come dance!"

"No," Faith refused, shaking her head. "I don't dance the Macarena."

"You did onboard the ship," Mallie pointed out with a pout.

"That was different," Faith said weakly as Mallie dragged her towards the dancefloor. "It was just us."

"It still is," Mallie said, pulling her into the middle of the group of slayers. "There is just more of us now."

"I'm so gonna kick your ass for this later," Faith warned her. She couldn't believe that she'd been pleased Ma T had let her take off the sling for the evening. At least if she still had it she'd have an excuse to get out of this.

"So?" shrugged Mallie. "That's later!"

**l**

Faith finally managed to drag the others away when Ma T left, telling Meurik that they had to be up early. It wasn't a lie. They would be. Mallie pouted about it, but Faith ignored her. Liss and Nya seemed more than ready to leave anyway. Jem was harder to read while Val and Kay were happy to follow her lead.

The streets of Camelot were a different place at night, with all of the shops and windows shuttered against the dark and most of its inhabitants tucked into bed for the night. Not Gelath though. His forge was still open, the red light of the fires spilling out onto the street and the sound of his hammer ringing through the night.

"That man!" clucked Ma T. "What will the neighbours say?" Bustling ahead, she disappeared into the forge. The sound of Gelath's hammer stopped.

"Suddenly, I don't want to go to bed," Faith quipped. She'd swopped with Kay earlier, giving the older slayer the actual bed. Now she'd have to walk past a domestic to go to sleep.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have your room?" Kay asked.

"Nah, I'm cool," Faith told her. "See you guys in the morning."

"Night," said Kay.

"Sleep well," Val told the four who would be sleeping above the forge.

"You too," said Faith, leading Mallie, Liss and Jem into the baking hot forge.

"Do not "in a minute" me, Gelath Strongarm," Ma T was saying. "You will come to bed now."

"Night guys," Faith called, leading the others over to the stairs at the back.

"Sleep well," Ma T smiled at them. The smile disappeared as she turned back to her husband. "_Now_, Gelath!"

"I cannot stop just now," Gelath told her, pulling a blade out of the fire as they climbed the stairs. "I will be in when I can."

"Got a minute?" Faith asked Jem quietly at the top of the stairs as the argument continued below.

"Um, sure," said Jem, looking confused.

"Great," said Faith, wishing he'd said no. Touchy-feely conversations weren't her strong point and she'd already had two of them today. "It's private," she said to Mallie and Liss as they lingered curiously on the landing.

"Pretend we are not here," Mallie suggested and Faith eyed her narrowly, wondering if she'd managed to sneak any alcohol at the banquet. Mallie sighed. "Fine," she said, moving towards their room. "Come on Liss."

"What is it?" Jem asked as the door shut behind them. Faith gestured at the closed door of his room and he frowned, opening it and walking into the room. Faith followed him inside, shutting the door behind her.

"You okay?" she asked him without any preamble.

"Fine," Jem replied immediately. "You?"

"Five by five," said Faith, crossing her arms.

"If that's all?" Jem said. "I'd like to go to bed."

"You don't have to travel with us, you know," Faith told him. "You have options."

"Like what?" Jem's lip curled but his eyes looked lost.

"Like staying here," said Faith. "Or going back to Langara. Liss remembers the address."

"I can't go back," Jem said. "Not while the Priors are there. They'd force me to tell them about you."

"Okay," Faith shrugged. She'd figured he'd work that one out for himself. "What about staying here? I'm sure Ma T'd take you in."

"No thanks," declined Jem.

"Staying with us is a bad idea," Faith told him seriously. "It's dangerous."

"Jonas..." Jem swallowed. "Jonas believed that what you're doing is important. Important enough for him to risk his life for you. I've listened to the others. I know what you're up against."

"Then you know more than me," Faith told him. "'Cause I don't. I don't know where we're going or what we'll be facing next. Following me could get you killed."

"Then you don't know if you'll need me or not," Jem said simply. "I want to help."

"Doesn't hurt that Mallie's hot, huh?" Faith winked at him and Jem blushed. "I saw you watching her dance. You got a hard-on for her!" Jem's blushed deepened and Faith chuckled. "Hurt her, and I'll break you," she warned him. "See you in the morning."

**l**

The bad thing about going to sleep in the middle of the afternoon was that Jool woke up full of energy around midnight. Getting up, she showered and dressed, wondering if any of her team were still up. If they had any sense, they'd be in bed, she thought to herself.

Opening her door, she discovered a note taped to it, her name scrawled on the front. Ripping it down, Jool tore the envelope open, quickly reading the short letter inside. It was from the Captain.

_Doc_, he had written. _We've gone to bed. Our Gate slot is 0500. Wake up call at 0400 please. If you're up, SG-1 need waking at 0300._ He'd signed it, _Jon_.

"Do I look like an alarm clock?" Jool asked the empty corridor.

**l**

Gelath's rhythmic hammering should have lulled her to sleep. It certainly worked on Mallie and Liss. But Faith found herself tossing and turning, unable to relax. After what felt like forever, she got up and went downstairs. Gelath was still working on her sword, folding another layer of metal into the blade. The hot air of the forge was charged with the static feel of magic, raising the hairs on Faith's head.

She realised that Gelath was muttering as he worked, the same words over and over, "Ferrum exsisto fortis*." It sounded like Latin but she wasn't exactly an expert.

Faith watched curiously for as long as she could stand the feeling of magic and then escaped into the night. Gelath hadn't even noticed her. The street was deserted and Faith savoured the feeling of being alone. She felt like she hadn't been alone in months. And Faith was a big believer in personal space.

Almost without her being aware of it, her feet were carrying her towards Merlin's library. For a few precious moments earlier, before the others had arrived at the library, Faith had felt close to Cam again. She wanted that feeling back. Craved it more than nicotine. Silently, she stole through the streets.

The library looked exactly as they'd left it, not surprising considering that the locals were still petrified of the place. Even Val was uncomfortable there. Reaching for her lighter, Faith lit the candles and then the fire. Once it was crackling cheerfully, she picked up a candlestick and headed downstairs.

It was here that she remembered Cam best. The look of frustration on his face as they searched for Merlin's pendant... Was he still looking for it? Or was he looking for her? As much as Faith wanted him to find her, she hoped he wasn't. The Holy Grail was their only shot at killing the Ori. No matter how hard Faith fought, she could only weaken them. Kinda made you question why The Powers had her fighting at all.

Unless it was to keep the slayers from Adria. Faith wished they'd found something in Merlin's books earlier, but it had been a bust. Course, a lotta books were missing. There might be something in the books Danny-boy had taken... Oh, well. Research really wasn't her thing anyway.

Faith sat on the chair, propping her feet up on the table. Cam might come back here when Daniel did. He might sit right here, on this chair, at this table.

She should leave him something.

Faith sat up, her feet falling to the floor, as the idea hit her. She could leave him a note, letting him know she'd been here; that she was still alive. That she missed him.

She was already scribbling words when she realised that other people would read what she wrote too. She crumpled the page and tried again. Several attempts later, she finally had something that if she wasn't exactly happy with, she was at least willing to share. She reread it just make sure.

_Cam,_

_Made it off Langara. Turns out Val's a slayer. Found five out here so far. Still trying to get back. Least I know the address now. Hope you guys are okay. Focus on Merlin's weapon. Don't worry bout me, I'm five by five. Craving nicotine and other things, but good._

_Faith_

Was it too short? Had she said too much? Not enough? Would he be able to read between the lines and know that she was worried about him? That she missed him. She deliberately hadn't mentioned Whistler or anything else that happened to her. She didn't want to worry him. Besides, he'd probably heard most of it from Jonas.

She really should let B know what was going on as well while she had the chance, Faith realised, pulling another sheet of paper towards her. That letter turned out to be a lot easier to write. She finally fell asleep before she'd finished it though.

**l**

On another plane of existence, far removed from fleshy concerns such as sleep, two beings met. What passed between them could be considered a conversation, if a conversation included images, sensations, smells and feelings. Such a conversation would be almost impossible to translate, but it went a little like this...

"A champion is lost to us," said the first being. "In her heart she has chosen Origin of her own free will."

"Easily remedied," said the second. "The fate of her world has already been decided in the lower planes. We have only to prevent the Orici from discovering her before it is carried out."

"Then she will die," said the first speaker, if you could call what it did speech. "And the Omega will fail."

"Not necessarily," said the other being. "There is another, ideally placed to join the Omega. She will have her coven when the time comes."

"I know of whom you speak," mused the first being. "It would require careful manipulation."

"My speciality..." said the second.

"Which is why you oversee the Omega's transfers," said the first. "Do it. The Omega must not fail."

"It shall be done..."

**l**

In the murky pre-dawn light, the rippling surface of the Stargate looked bright. It lit up the clearing as three men and two women stepped out of it.

"All I'm saying is," said Vala, continuing the discussion they'd been having before they'd stepped into the wormhole. "How come SG-13 gets to miss prostration?"

"Oh, yeah," scoffed Daniel. "Good idea. A slayer, prostrating."

"You're awfully moody this morning, Daniel, darling," Vala told him sweetly. "Were three cups of coffee not enough for you?"

"Actually, no," Daniel admitted through clenched teeth.

"Let's move out," said Cam as the Stargate shut off. "We don't wanna miss church."

"Goody," Vala said glumly, following him. "Why couldn't I go with SG-13?"

"Good question," sighed Daniel.

**l**

Surfacing from sleep, Mallie rolled over, cracking her eyes open to see how advanced the day was. Still plenty of time to sleep. Snuggling into her pillow, she let herself drift back off to...

The significance of what she'd seen dawned on her and her eyes snapped open, staring at Faith's empty bed. Where was Faith?

**l**

As Cam gave lipservice to the formulaic rotes of prostration, he couldn't help but wonder if his reluctant participation was feeding the Ori. He really hoped not. Beside him, Teal'c refused to give the Ori even lipservice, merely copying the movements of the crowd and keeping his hood well down.

Finally the Prior, not one Cam had seen before, launched into his main oration. After the first few sentences, Cam began to pay close attention to him for the first time. The subject of today's sermon was the Orici's Oriclave. The handmaidens of the Orici, they would ascend with her once they had brought Origin to the rest of the universe. It was a clever pitch. Girls must be signing up across the galaxy.

Cam had never heard of the Oriclave and he was willing to bet from the rapt look on Jackson's face that he hadn't either. They sounded a helluva lot like slayers though.

**l**

Dawn was breaking over Camelot as Faith made her way back to the house, casting thin yellow rays over the tips of the buildings. The sound of Gelath's hammer was absent from the air and Faith wondered if he'd finally gone to bed. Smoke still rose from the smithy though.

"Milady," the loud whisper easily reached her ears and Faith turned to face Gelath.

"Call me Faith," she told him for what felt like the millionth time. "What's up?"

"Been keeping an eye out for you," Gelath told her quietly. "Thought you might want to know, the womenfolk are in a tizzy because you vanished."

Faith sighed. "Thanks," she said. Better go face the music...

"Hot or cold?" Gelath asked.

"For the sword?" asked Faith. He nodded. "Make it cold," she told him. "The Ori are all about fire."

"Yes, Milady," said Gelath, bobbing his head respectfully.

"Call me Faith," Faith had a strong feeling of déjà vu.

"Yes, Milady."

It was like talking to a brick wall.

**l**

Dawn had almost shut shop and packed it in for the day when the Stargate on P3X-29J activated again, spewing outwards. The harsh light of day made the rippling pool of water suspended vertically in the air appear far less otherworldly. Really, it did.

Just four people stepped through this time. The only female, her bright red hair covered by a drab scarf, stiffened immediately.

"Whoa," she said shakily.

"What's up, Doc?" Jon asked, alarmed by her reaction.

"Got the wiggins?" Oz asked her sympathetically.

"Big time," she told him. "You?"

"Oh, yeah," Oz nodded, his bright red hair concealed by a hooded cape. "Big time."

"Great," said Jon. "Now that you've freaked the rest of us out, can we get a move on?"

**l**

"Anyone else sensing a theme here?" Cam asked his teammates quietly as yet another native walked away from them after violently rejecting a vague suggestion that the Ori might not be Gods.

"The inhabitants of this village seem to be wholehearted in their belief in Origin," Teal'c commentated.

"I wonder how much of that has to do with those stories we keep hearing about an Ori woman who can heal the sick?" said Sam.

"I'm telling you, it's Adria," insisted Vala.

"Yesterday, you were convinced she was on Langara," Jackson pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"Two hours ago, we were on Earth, Daniel." Vala scowled at him, "Is it really that inconceivable that she might be here now?"

"Frankly, yes," Jackson told her. "The chances of a coincidence like that occurring..."

"Get a room," Cam muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" Jackson asked him.

Damn. Cam cleared his throat, making a mental note not to mutter anything while he was stood opposite the archaeologist again. "I said, SG-13 should be here soon," he lied.

"That's funny," said Jackson. "I could have sworn you said..."

"Yes?" Cam asked him innocently, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing," Jackson backed down, glancing at Vala. She frowned, looking between them, aware that she'd missed something. Sam hid her grin.

"SG-13 is here," Teal'c informed them.

They followed his gaze across the market, picking SG-13 out of the crowd. It was difficult. For once their obvious youth worked in their favour, helping them to blend in with the crowd. Cam kept trying to spot Osbourne's red hair, despite the fact that, like Teal'c's tattoo, it would be covered up. Finally he saw them, loitering near a fabric stall. Jool had covered her hair too. That hadn't helped him find them.

Cam's eyes met O'Neil's and he tipped his head towards a vegetable stall between the two groups. O'Neil nodded slightly, his lips moving, and SG-13 began to drift towards it.

"Come on," Cam told his team.

Seemingly at random, the two groups started at either end of the table and merged in the middle. Cam made a beeline for O'Neil.

"You missed a helluva sermon," he said as soon as the Captain was in earshot, pretending to inspect a strange square root vegetable.

"Pity," O'Neil mourned insincerely. "So, Oz and the Doc have the wiggins." Cam stared at him. "Apparently it's a technical term," O'Neil told him. "It means that the Doc's got goosebumps and Oz thinks the place smells bad. What've you discovered?"

"The whole planet seems to have converted willingly to Origin," Cam quickly brought him up to speed. "We've heard stories that after yesterday's battle, an Ori woman went round healing all the wounded soldiers."

"Adria?" O'Neil jumped to the same conclusion immediately.

"Vala thinks so," said Cam.

"Nothing like a near-death experience to make a man discover religion," quipped O'Neil.

"Unfortunately," Cam grimaced. "Apparently there's going to be some big ceremony in the square in a couple of hours."

"Joy," O'Neil said unenthusiastically. "Sounds like fun."

"See you there?" said Cam.

"Wouldn't miss it!" O'Neil replied as the two SG-teams separated.

**l**

Mother Teeg watched her guests closely as they ate. Nya, Liss and Jem seemed happier today. More settled and willing to take part in the conversation about what they would do after breakfast. Yet more training apparently. They were deciding who was going to fight who. Faith had a speculative gleam in her eye. She was using her injured arm to eat with only the slightest signs of discomfort or difficulty. Teegara just hoped that she did not plan to fight, or that she would limit herself to instructing Jem. It was probably a futile hope but she clung to it.

"Pack your bags before we go," Faith said suddenly. "We're moving out today."

Everyone spoke at once.

"What?" asked Nya.

"Why?" Liss wanted to know.

"You're not well enough to travel," objected Teegara.

"Me too?" squeaked her daughter, surprised and delighted.

"When?" asked Kay.

"Can I come?" Ramus asked her.

"I'm already packed," Jem told her with a smile.

"But we just got here..." Mallie pouted.

"Whistler said we were behind schedule, remember," said Faith. "We gotta keep moving."

"Faith," said Teegara. "Gelath and I have been talking. We wish to go with you."

"No," Faith shook her head stubbornly.

"But-" Teegara tried again.

"What about Ramus?" asked Faith. "You gonna drag him into the middle of this too?"

"I want to go," said Ramus.

"You're not going," his mother ruled automatically. "Faith..."

"You said it," Faith shrugged, smiling sympathetically at her. "I'm sorry. You'd just slow us down."

"Will you promise me something?" Teegara asked her.

"I'll watch her back," Faith promised solemnly.

"No," said Teegara. "Promise me that if you ever find yourself in a situation where we would not... slow you down, you will send for us."

"Uh," said Faith, at a loss. "Sure. Why not?"

"Good," said Teegara, with satisfaction. She leaned back in her seat. "Now, will you be staying for dinner."

"Dunno," shrugged Faith. "Depends how much longer my sword takes."

On cue, the door banged open and Gelath rushed inside. "I need ice," he announced.

Teegara rose from the table with a resigned sigh. "And I suppose it never occurred to you to fetch it from the icehouse yourself?" she asked him rhetorically. Her husband blinked at her. "Never mind," she said. "I will go."

**l**

* Latin translation: "Sword be strong"

**Faith's First Drafts...**

_Mitchell,_

_What the hell happened to all the books? Girl can't research the Oriclave without books..._

_Flyboy!_

_Bet ya never thought you'd hear from me again! Heard you guys were planning on coming back and thought I'd leave a note to let you know I'm not dead. Can't stick around, apparently I've got slayers to find. Found five so far. Turns out Valencia's one._

_Had a visit from a friend of Buffy's called Whistler. He told me that_

_Cam,_

_Made it back to Camelot and figured I'd drop the SGC a note to let you know I'm not dead. Still looking for a way back, but I guess you know that since Jonas dropped in. You probably also know that there's a bunch of slayers following me and we're fighting Adria _

_Mitchell,_

_Figured you guys'll want a report when I get home and I'd better get a head start. After Danny-boy got beamed up, I fought-_

_Cam, _

_I miss you._


	25. Slayer's Gambit Part 1 of 3: Powers Play

**A/N:**

Okay, I freely admit that I've been holding this chapter back. There's a perfectly good reason for that (beside the general hecticness of my life right now) and I actually blame you. :) You see, originally the Unknown Slayer of the previous chapter was slated to die in this one, which is why she remained unknown. I thought I'd left enough clues for those who had seen the relevant episode (SG-1, 10/07 – Counterstrike) to guess what was about to happen. Apparently I hadn't (my bad) because the response to the idea that a Slayer might turn to Origin was overwhelming. It got my muse thinking and wondering the whole time I was writing this chapter, and after I moved on to the next one, I delayed the posting of this while I decided whether or not to kill off the Unknown Slayer. Long story short, taking a break to fly to New York last week helped me make up my mind, and as soon as I got back and got over the jetlag, I began rewriting scenes I'd already written. Which really didn't take as long as I'd feared so, three days after my return, have a chapter! :D

Unfortunately it's not all of Counterstrike as I've made the executive decision to split the episode over three chapters so that Faith's new arc is also concluded by the end of the episode. Thanks to SG-13 and the Unknown Slayer (who you'll now meet), there's quite a lot of deviation from the episode although, as always, the core events remain the same. Some unaltered scenes have been included to help make sense of the plot for those who haven't seen the show. The chapter title is in keeping with the chess-themed title of the original episode, and the title of this part refers to the switcheroo the Powers are about to make. Kudos to the first person to guess who takes the Unknown Slayer's place. Shouldn't be hard. :)

**Important Information:**

Following the success of _Lost, in LA_, chapter four of this story, _SG-13_, has been edited. Nothing major, certainly not enough to require a re-read, but my brain has developed a new plot-twist for my plans for the upcoming SG-1 episode, Momento Mori, and the Earth Ba'al Clone, inspired by a review from Greywizard. **Regular readers should be aware that all reference to Giles' emotions has been removed from this story**. Also, this vital clue will vanish when the plotline kicks in. ;)

If you started reading this story after Lost finished, don't worry about it. The edit was done before I posted the last chapter.

Now, I've rabbited on for more than long enough, so the only thing left to say is, enjoy!

**Slayer's Gambit – Part 1/3: Powers Play**

Faith smirked as she sauntered towards the fence and the line of men stood there, watching them as they shuffled their feet awkwardly. They looked like a bunch of naughty schoolboys, not sure if they should run for it or bluff her out. They'd watched her girls train while they were here. Now they were gonna help, whether they liked it or not.

"I need two volunteers," she announced loudly once she was close enough for them to hear.

There was a long moment while men avoided each other's eyes and shuffled their feet some more. Finally one man was nudged forward by his friends. Almost immediately, three more stepped forward.

"You," Faith chose, picking the biggest. "Congratulations, you two're Priors. Rest of you, you're Ori soldiers. You're gonna attack my girls. Priors, you're in charge, an' you get special powers..."

**l**

Adria stood still, patiently waiting for her cue to walk out onto the balcony as Deama fussed with the train of her long golden dress. Her new Clava was certainly taking her responsibilities seriously. Adria had been waiting for her when the young girl had finally returned to her home, after leading the Prior and soldiers Adria had sent after her on a long and futile chase. After the deaths of her companions, it hadn't taken much to convince the backward girl of Adria's divinity and once Deama had accepted Origin into her heart, her mind and the power it possessed had opened to the Orici. Adria had wasted no time in forging ties between their minds, creating unbreakable bonds between them. She had been working on the task for most of the morning, forcing her to miss leading the morning prostration.

Unconsciously, Adria touched the wide fabric collar that hid the ugly scar that stretched across her throat. Now that she had one member of her Oriclave by her side, she burned to possess the others. With the possible exception of the blonde bitch who had scarred her. On second thought, it would be ultimately more rewarding to break her to her will, as Adria fully intended to do to Faith. How much more sweeter would her victory be when she had the blonde looking adoringly up at her, heard her call her Divinity as Deama did, and could force her to slay the man she loved?

Wrapt in happy thoughts, Adria almost missed her cue. Only the tentative touch of Deama's hand on her arm called her back to her duty. Her head held regally high, Adria stepped out onto the balcony and faced the crowd, Deama half a step behind her.

**l**

"Aw, crap," Jon muttered when Adria appeared on the balcony followed closely by a timid-looking teen in a blue dress almost as fancy as the Orici's.

"I thought she was supposed to be on Langara?" Andrew whispered as she began to speak to the crowd.

"The unbelievers among you sought to hinder our message!" Adria's voice rang out in the small square. "They took up arms in an attempt to suppress the truth."

"Looks like she left..." Jon shot back.

"But they failed and were vanquished," Adria informed the crowd. "A reminder to all that Origin cannot be extinguished."

"Who's the girl?" Oz asked, frowning as he sniffed deeply.

"How the hell should I know?" growled Jon.

"It will flourish through this world and countless others," said Adria, and the crowd cheered her.

"Captain..." the Doc said through gritted teeth and Jon looked at her for the first time since Adria had stepped out. She was quivering, every muscle in her lithe body locked as she glared up at Adria. "Talk me down..."

"Uh..." Jon floundered, put on the spot.

"The believers among you have been richly rewarded," Adria told them, gesturing to the black-haired girl beside her. "With truth... With Origin."

"Think of tea," Andrew suggested. "A nice cup of hot tea..."

"Not helping!" the Doc told Andrew.

"It is now up to you to help others to see as you have seen," Adria said.

"Scones?" tried Andrew.

"Andrew!" snapped Jon as the Doc took a predatory step forward.

Adria's voice rose, "To spread the message by joining the armies of the Ori!"

"You were excited about the Goa'uld healing device," Oz remembered.

The Doc's lip curled back. "Jonas," she snarled, tensing further as Adria beckoned the girl who accompanied her, slipping through the curtained doorway and out of sight.

"If you promise not to cause another pile-up I'll give you a driving lesson when we get back," Jon offered desperately.

"Really?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Re-" Jon started speaking a split second before the Odyssey beamed them up. "Ally," he finished.

"That is so cool!" Andrew enthused.

"What happened?" Jon and Mitchell spoke at the same time. They looked at each other and after a moment, Jon stepped back, deferring to the senior officer. He tried not to scowl about it. He really did.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Colonel Emerson told them.

"Dude, you've been onboard before," Oz quietly reminded Andrew.

"Sir," said Marks. "I'm not picking up any life signs on the planet."

"What?" asked Carter.

"Yeah," Andrew replied excitedly. "But this is so cool! Life signs!"

"But that's impossible," Carter continued over the top of him.

"What is it?" Emerson asked Marks. "Sensor malfunction?"

Andrew squeaked excitedly. Jon glared at him.

Marks shrugged. "All systems are operating normally," he told them, baffled.

Andrew squeaked again as Daniel stepped forward, concerned.

"There are thousands of people on that planet," the archaeologist said.

"He's right," Sam confirmed, reading the information over Marks' shoulder. "We're not picking up anything."

"Question," said Oz, still standing next to Jool. "What happened to Adria?"

Vala's hands twisted together, writhing as the two SG-teams turned to look at her. Daniel's face softened compassionately as she bit her lip and he took a half-step towards her.

"I'm just... going to find the restroom," Vala told them, pointing at the open door. She fled from the room.

"Good idea," Jon approved of her plan. "Me too."

**l**

When the radiation wave from the Stargate hit the village, Adria had a tight grasp on Deama, both physically and mentally. Her necklace was clasped around both their necks as the two clung together, in an attempt to extend the Orici's protection to her Clava. Adria pushed her rage and fear aside, focussing all of her resources on shielding Deama from the radiation that buffeted them, on keeping herself and her Clava alive.

**l**

Back on Earth, Caroline Lam was making her rounds of the SGC's latest wounded. Entering Jonas' room, she observed him for a minute before she touched his chart. Considering his injuries when he arrived, and the length of time it had been since, he was doing remarkably well. His treatments with the Goa'uld healing device had certainly made a difference. They should be able to remove the shunts in his chest within the next day or so.

She checked them, making sure they weren't clogged, before she picked up his chart. Flipping through it, she was pleased to see that the latest CAT scan of his head showed almost no more swelling. They could take him off the medication that was keeping him in a coma.

The swelling had also gone down on his spine, but what it revealed wasn't encouraging. In that case, the swelling had masked the fact that some of the nerves in his spine had been severed. Jonas would definitely have mobility problems. Only time would tell to what degree.

In the meantime, Caroline made a note on his chart to take him off some of his medication. It was time for Jonas to wake up.

**l**

Onboard the Odyssey, Jon was on his way back from a quick bathroom break when he caught sight of the Doc, dressed in a red hazmat suit with the helmet tucked under her arm, her long hair pulled back in a plait that swung across the small of her back as she hurried towards the bridge. Jon frowned. What the hell?

"Hey!" he snapped. "Doc!"

She jumped, stopping to turn around and face him. "Sir!" she replied, looking away guiltily. "Um, hi."

"Whatcha doin'?" Jon casually asked as he reached her.

"Oh, um..." she said as he indicated that they keep walking. "I'm, uh, going down to the surface with the survey team."

"No, you're not," Jon ruled.

"What?" she demanded, staring up at him in disbelief. "Yes, I am."

"No," Jon told her firmly. "You're not."

"I am," she said stubbornly.

"Not."

"Am."

"Not."

"Captain!" protested the Doc, stopping in the middle of the hallway to glare up at him with her big cats eyes.

"Doc," Jon said evenly, looking back at her. "You knew I wouldn't like it or you wouldn't have waited until I left to get dressed. Congratulations by the way, you change quicker than Carter." Jon awkwardly stopped talking when he realised how his words could be construed, feeling self-conscious as he started walking again.

"There could still be people down there that need my help," the Doc argued, trotting beside him.

"No life signs, Doc," Jon reminded her.

"But I could help find out what happened to them," she insisted.

"We know what happened," Jon snapped. "Big energy wave covered the planet. No life signs left. Mystery solved."

"Colonel Emerson and Cam don't agree with you," she told him pointedly.

_Cam_? Jon frowned, glancing at her.

"They want me on the survey team," she continued. "I want to be on the survey team. I'm going!"

"What if there's radiation?" Jon asked, trying to change her mind one last time. He knew it was a possibility Carter was worrying about, she'd mentioned it to Emerson.

"Hence the hazmat," she said, gesturing to the bright red outfit she was wearing.

"Matches your hair," commented Jon, trying to diffuse the situation. She glared at him and Jon hastily backpedalled, "In a good way."

She was scowling as they entered the bridge and quickly moved away from him to join the rest of the survey team, waiting for one last briefing from Emerson. Jon watched her thoughtfully with a frown. When had she started calling Mitchell by his first name?

**l**

Jool wandered around the square, wondering what she should do. There were no bodies for her to examine, no way for her to analyse the effects of the energy wave. Everyone was just gone. There weren't even any animals left. It was like LA. Except it wasn't because she'd never been to LA and, as far as she knew, the people there had taken their clothes with them when they vanished. Eerie didn't even begin to describe the atmosphere.

Quarter of an hour ago she'd been standing right there. Next to a woman in that brown dress that was puddled on the floor now. Jool shivered. If it hadn't been for the Odyssey...

"What's up, Doc?" Jool jumped as the Captain's voice broke into her thoughts, delivered directly to her ear by the small earpiece she was wearing.

"Not a lot, sir," she admitted. "To be honest, I'm superfluous here."

"Oh-kay," he said slowly and she wondered if he knew what superfluous meant. He should. He was fifty years old after all. "Guess it's a good job there's been a change of plan then," he continued jovially.

"What?" asked Jool as the square around her melted away, replaced by the bridge of the Odyssey.

"We're beaming down to the Mothership in five minutes," he informed her personally, standing next to Cam and Andrew. He grinned at her and her stomach did backflips, "Time for another quick change."

**l**

Bright light filled a deserted corridor of the Ori Mothership. As it faded, it left behind nine heavily armed people dressed in black battledress uniforms. The shortest of the group, a man with bright red hair, screwed his face up in disgust as the large band cautiously spread out, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand.

"Gothic," Jon commented, looking around the hallway. "Think I preferred gold."

"You know your way round this tub?" Cam asked Vala.

"All the hallways look the same," she told him defensively. "I haven't got my bearings yet."

"And the goosebumps are back," Jool announced, shivering.

"There's got to be a control room," Carter told them. "I'm guessing it'll be in one of the forward sections."

"We've got a lot of ground to cover," Cam realised. "Time to split up."

There was an awkward moment when SG-1 looked at SG-13 and SG-13 looked back.

"I'm with Carter," Oz informed them all. "Looking forward to my first alien computer. Got a tablet and everything." He held it up so they could see.

"Shiny," commented Andrew. "I'm with Teal'c!"

Teal'c's eyes closed. A pained rumbling sound came from deep within his throat.

"I'll get Sam and Oz pointed in the right direction," Vala volunteered. "Daniel can protect me!"

"Uhh..." Jon wasn't sure that was a good idea. He glanced at Mitchell.

"I'll go with them, sir," seeing the look on his face, Jool volunteered. She wanted to talk to Vala about Adria's death anyway. Two birds, one stone.

"Guess that just leaves you and me," Mitchell said genially to Jon.

Jon stared at him. Joy.

**l**

The slayers creamed the villagers. Faith reran the scenario, casting herself as Adria this time. This time they struggled, losing Jem and Kay to the villagers. Kay left herself wide open trying to protect Jem and Jem went down moments later. Her shoulder screaming with pain, Faith ran it again. This time, they didn't lose anyone. Finally, when the sun was high in the sky and the villagers looked like they might mutiny, Faith called a halt. Even her girls were looking rumpled and Jem's rags really were falling off him now. Faith noticed Mallie sneaking peeks and suppressed a smirk. Looked like Jem wasn't the only one with a crush.

As the slayers followed the men gratefully trudging off the field, Faith noticed a giant of a man moving against the horde. It was Gelath, dark shadows under his eyes and a triumphant grin on his face. Realising that she'd spotted him, the large blacksmith raised one massive hand in an enthusiastic wave. Faith broke into a jog to meet him, the others streaming behind her as she moved through the crowd, cradling her injured arm against her body.

"Yo, Papa G!" she called as soon as she was within earshot. "What's up?"

"The sky!" he boomed back, with a hearty chuckle at his own cleverness.

Faith grinned, unable to resist liking the behemoth of a man, as she slowed to a halt in front of him, the others spreading out into a semi-circle around her. There was something so innocent about his cheerfulness.

Gelath grinned back, announcing simply, "It is done."

**l**

"Keep heading up," Vala advised Sam. She held one hand out flat in the air, "Storage," her other hand hovered above the first, "Living quarters," the bottom hand moved up, over the other, "Engines," she swopped hands a final time, "Priors and authorised men only. I never got that far."

"Got it," Sam told her. "Keep checking in."

"We will," Daniel promised absently, looking down another dark hallway. "Ladies, shall we?"

Vala beamed at him, "We shall!"

"Be careful," Oz warned Jool quietly.

"You too," she said seriously before turning and following Vala and Daniel. Oz turned to Colonel Carter, looking up at her.

"So..." she said. "Up?"

"Up," Oz agreed.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Jool had a bad feeling too. Her goosebumps were spreading. Trailing silently behind Daniel and Vala as they crept through the deserted corridors of the Ori ship, encountering only piles of clothes, Jool kept her slayer senses on full alert. Something was rotten in Denmark...

"Can I ask you something?" Vala asked Daniel suddenly.

"Just the fact that you have to ask makes me think I should say no..." Daniel sighed.

"Back on the Odyssey, you said you knew how I felt," said Vala and Jool suddenly began to feel awkward. "What did you mean?"

"What?" said Daniel.

"Well, with Adria," Vala explained. "You said, "believe it or not, I know how you feel." What did you mean?"

"Yeah..." Daniel said awkwardly, stopping and glancing at Jool. Jool struggled to hide her interest in what was starting to sound like a very personal conversation. "Um..."

"Oh, look..." Jool said, faking interest in what lay beyond a pair of open doors in an attempt to give them some space. She was definitely surplus to requirements right now. "I wonder what's in this room?"

Vala looked up at Daniel as Jool tactfully disappeared from sight. Daniel sighed, resuming their search of the Mothership.

"Ten years ago, my wife was taken as host by a Goa'uld," he admitted in a hollow voice, moving down the hallway, away from Vala and Jool. Vala stared at him, astonished by his out of the blue revelation.

"The framed picture..." she realised, as he walked away from her. She hurried after him, "On the wall in your office. Is that her?"

"Yeah," Daniel nodded. "Uh, her name was Sha're. We'd been married for just over a year when she was... taken," stumbling over the word, he glanced at Vala, the first time he'd looked at her since he'd started this confession. She was looking right back at him, her usually merry face more serious than he'd seen it before, even when she'd declared her relief at Adria's death earlier, onboard the Odyssey. Quickly Daniel looked away as he continued, "I swore I would get her back."

"What happened?" Vala asked compassionately as he peered into a room.

"Uh..." sighed Daniel, turning to face her. "I joined SG-1 and searched for her for over two years, but in the end I couldn't save her," he confessed soberly, his eyes haunted and far away. "For a long time I felt guilty that I'd failed her."

"And now?" Vala asked him quietly, her eyes intently taking in every nuance of his facial expressions.

"Now... at least I can draw comfort from the fact that she's no longer suffering at the hands of the Goa'uld," Daniel told her with a shrug and a sigh. "I guess, in a small way, I feel relieved too."

As Vala gazed sympathetically at him, Daniel mustered the smallest of half-smiles for her. One side of her mouth lifted sadly as she watched him move off. Behind them, Jool stopped lurking just out of normal human earshot, approaching Vala. The two friends shared a look loaded with feminine meaning as they ambled forward together in Daniel's wake.

"Explains a lot..." Jool whispered to Vala.

"Doesn't it?" Vala replied, equally quietly. Neither of them accounted for the excellent acoustics of the hallway however...

"I heard that!" Daniel called back and the two women winced.

"Hey!" rallied Jool, speaking clearly, and not wholly to Vala. "Did I ever tell you about my parents?"

"No!" Vala said loudly, going along with it. "Were they nice?"

"They were," Jool told her, projecting her voice so that it reached Daniel. He slowed as she continued, "They died in a car crash when I was six."

"Oh," Vala said quietly. Not quite the happy story she'd been hoping for...

"They refused to hand me over to the Watchers Council and died two days later," Jool elaborated. "I've always felt guilty about that. If I wasn't a slayer, they'd still be alive."

"It's not your fault," Daniel told her. He'd stopped walking, letting them catch him up, "There was nothing you could do. You were six."

"I know," admitted Jool. "But I always wonder, what if...?"

"Oh, I see what this is!" Vala accused suddenly. "You share your pathetic stories with me and I talk about mine in return? Well it's not going to happen!"

"Actually..." Jool said, glancing at Daniel. "I shared my pathetic story to make Daniel feel better about me eavesdropping on his."

"Oh, well, I feel better," Daniel said sarcastically.

"Oh," Vala said in a small voice. "In which case I apologise. Go on. What happened next?"

Jool shrugged, "The Watchers Council got custody of me of course. It wasn't so bad. My Watcher actually adopted me when it looked like I wasn't going to be a slayer. He's..." she grinned fondly. "Eccentric."

"I hate to interrupt the girly chit-chat," Daniel said smoothly. "But can we please keep moving while we have it?"

"By all means," Vala told him, gesturing him onwards. Daniel started walking and she immediately added mischievously, "Let's go back to stealing the ship."

"We're not stealing the ship," Daniel frowned, correcting her.

"Um...?" Jool objected, "Technically we are."

**l**

Faith held her shiny new sword delicately, getting a feel for its weight and balance. Although it was both heavier and thicker than a broadsword, almost a foot wide at the hilt, the weight was no problem for the Boston-born slayer who flexed her wrist, sending the double-edged blade cutting through the air. It was perfectly balanced and, although she was holding it in her left hand, the grip wasn't uncomfortable. Ignoring the way her shoulder protested, she switched hands, discovering that the grip was comfortable in either hand and long enough to be gripped in both although she wouldn't need to. The cross-guard was plain and functional, as was the pommel, but the blade... The blade was a thing of beauty.

Steel glittered bluely in the sun as Faith switched hands again and wove the sword in an intricate pattern, uncaring of the staring spectators surrounding her and the other slayers. Wider and thicker than any sword blade she'd ever seen before, it had clearly been forged for someone with her strength. Broader at the base, it curved gently in and then back out, almost as much, before tapering to a fine point with a pattern of flowing lines running the length of the blade. It was perfectly made. Flawless.

Reluctantly, Faith slowed her movements, lowering the sword before she turned back to Gelath. One look at his shining face told her that her idea of trying to pay him was a bad one. He looked like a kid who'd just found out it was Christmas. Who was she to cancel it?

"Gelath..." Faith said, struggling to find the right words. "This sword... It'll be my honour to fight the Ori with it."

"The honour is mine, Lady Faith," Gelath told her, bobbing his bald head in respect.

"It's Faith, Papa G..." Faith sighed, knowing that correcting him was useless. "Just Faith..."

Gelath bobbed his head again in acknowledgement, "Yes, Milady."

Totally useless...

**l**

Mitchell whistled as he peered into yet another room while Jon watched his six. Immediately abandoning his post, Jon peeked over the Colonel's shoulder. Directly in front of them, accessible by a fenced walkway, in the middle of the large chamber stood a conical structure, a glowing ball of white light suspended in its centre.

"Wow," said Mitchell. "Check it out."

"Shiny," Jon agreed. "Looks kinda important..."

"Exactly," Mitchell said, opening his breast pocket. "Which makes me think... Feel like dropping off some C-4 while we're here?"

"You have to ask?"

**l**

"You are incorrect," Teal'c solemnly informed Andrew Wells as the two traversed the hallways of the Ori ship. "The U.S.S Enterprise would be defeated by the Death Star."

"No," disagreed Andrew. "Think about it..."

"Main cannon," Teal'c pointed out.

"The Enterprise has shields," Andrew defended it.

"Capable of withstanding a hit from a laser cannon able to destroy planets?" Teal'c arched one dark eyebrow.

"But all they'd have to do is get close enough to transport a tribble on board!" Andrew revealed his master plan.

"I am unfamiliar with this tribble you speak of," Teal'c admitted as he opened one of the closed doors in the hallway. "However, I feel obliged to point out the Death Star's superior shielding technology."

While Andrew glanced quickly into the revealed bedroom, shrugging and moving on, Teal'c lingered, struck by the sense that something was out of place in the room, that something about it was wrong. At first glance it appeared to be identical to the other bedrooms on this level but when Teal'c looked closer he could see that the furniture was more study, made of solid metal. Moving into the room, Teal'c took hold of a nearby chair, pulling it towards with all his strength. The chair stayed immobile, welded to the ship's floor.

"What is it?" Andrew Wells asked, about to step into the room.

"Stop," Teal'c ordered, throwing up his hand.

Andrew froze, "What?"

"There are no door controls on this side," Teal'c noticed, examining the doorframe closely. "This is a prison."

"Pretty fancy," Andrew commented, looking around the luxurious room from his position in the doorway. "Who do you think it's for?"

Both of Teal'c's eyebrows rose this time and he regarded the young man in front of him with disbelief for a moment before moving past him, back out into the hallway.

"You don't think...?" Andrew Wells said eagerly, following him.

"It could be," Teal'c told him.

"But... that would mean that she was onboard the ship when the radiation wave hit!" Andrew panicked. "Oh, God, Faith's dead! Buffy's so going to kill me!"

"There were no clothes present within the room," Teal'c said absently, frowning as he tried to work out if he'd just heard a noise or not. "Be quiet."

"So she's not dead?" Andrew sighed happily. "Phew! That's a relief!"

"Silence," Teal'c hushed him.

"Because Buffy would not be happy if Faith died," Andrew would not be silenced. "Neither would Willow, or Xander... or– Murrph!"

Unexpectedly cut off when Teal'c large hand closed over his mouth, Andrew stared up at the imposing Jaffa looming over him. "Mmph mm mmmph?" he asked

A zat blast hit them and all they knew was blackness.

**l**

Oz's eyebrows raised as the doors opened and he and Sam walked into a surprisingly small room. In the centre of the room sat an ornate chair on a platform, an empty set of Prior's robes and a discarded staff lying on the floor next to it. Opposite them, a fan-shaped window showed the world outside, the deserted village streets.

"Jackpot," he commented.

"Guys, I think we've found something," Colonel Carter spoke into her radio.

"What have you got?" Daniel Jackson asked her.

"I think it might be the bridge," she told him. "And it looks like the main command interface is a chair, similar to the weapons platform in Antarctica."

"Well it makes sense that the technology would be similar," mused Daniel over the radios as Oz removed one of the panels below the computers lining the walls of the room.

"Vala, you said most of the people on this ship were simple villagers, right?" asked Colonel Carter, crouching down by the control chair to pick up the Prior's staff.

"Yes, why?" Vala replied.

"Well, I think it's likely the Priors who are flying the ships," Colonel Carter told everyone. Oz concentrated on finding somewhere to plug in his computer tablet. He'd figured that out the moment he'd smelt the place. Nothing human had been in here in a very long time. Probably not since it was built. He listened with half an ear as Colonel Carter kept extrapolating, "Unfortunately that probably means the chair is keyed to their unique brain physiology."

"Don't sweat it," Colonel Mitchell told her over the radios. "Plan B is in place."

Oz's eyes met Colonel Carter's. Plan B involved blowing the ship up. Good as a last resort, but was this the last resort?

"Okay, let's not jump the gun just yet," Colonel Carter said into her radio. "At the very least I'd like to try getting some information out of this database before we start blowing things us."

"I hear you, Sam," Mitchell's voice echoed around the bridge of the Ori ship. "But it won't be long before the Ori come back for this ship. We're not gonna let 'em..." Mitchell's voice trailed off mid-sentence and Oz looked at Colonel Carter again. She was looking straight back at him, a worried frown on her face.

The sound of multiple energy weapons priming came out of their radios.

"Cam?" Colonel Carter asked immediately. "Sir? What's happening?"

"Not much," Mitchell replied, his Southern accent deeper than usual. "But we got ourselves some company."

Oz frowned. What kind of company? Did it matter? Company of any kind was of the bad.

"Cam, report," said Colonel Carter, obviously thinking along the same lines.

"It's alright, Sam," Colonel Mitchell told her. "Just a little misunderstanding with some of our Jaffa friends. Go back to work."

Colonel Carter looked over at him. "How's it going?" she asked Oz.

"I'm in," Oz told her, looking at the complex code scrolling down his tablet. He shrugged. "Not sure what I'm looking at."

"Okay..." she sighed, turning to one of the alien consoles.

She touched something and there was a sound of something powering down as the lights dropped and the flow of code on Oz's tablet altered. Oz lifted an eyebrow, looking at her.

"What did you do?" he asked curiously.

"I'm not entirely sure..." she admitted as their radios crackled into life again.

"Sam, we've got trouble!" Daniel Jackson urgently warned them. "And Jool just ran off!"

"Odyssey," Colonel Carter instantly spoke into her radio. "This is Colonel Carter, requesting immediate extraction."

Oz disconnected his computer from the Ori machines, wishing they could have had longer for him to try and crack them, packing the tablet away in his backpack and slinging it over his shoulders as he stood. Waiting for the familiar sensation of beaming to kick in, he coiled his computer leads neatly. Tucked them into his pockets. Adjusted the straps of his backpack. Double-checked he had everything... Ran out of things to do.

"Odyssey, what's happening?" asked Colonel Carter.

"We're getting too much signal degradation for successful beam-out," Colonel Emerson told her over the radio. "As far as I can tell, the malfunction's not coming from our end."

Signal degradation? Oz frowned, taking his backpack off and pulling out his computer tablet again. He started plugging it back in as Colonel Carter relayed the bad news to their teammates. What was causing that?

"Guys, we've got a problem," Sam announced into her radio. "The Odyssey can't beam us out."

"Why not?" asked Daniel.

"Did you turn the shields on?" asked the other Daniel, sat on the floor on the other side of the room tapping on his computer tablet.

Sam winced as she examined the console she'd touched earlier, "Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it looks like I might have reactivated the shields."

"Why would you do that?" Vala wanted to know.

"It wasn't intentional," Sam snapped, annoyed at the implication that she'd done it on purpose.

"Oh."

"Can you reverse it?" Daniel asked

"I'll give it a try," Sam told him.

"SG-1, this is Odyssey," it was Colonel Emerson again. "Three ha'tak vessels are moving into positions around the planet."

"Don't chance it Odyssey," Sam told him. "We can't risk losing another ship."

"Alright," Emerson agreed grudgingly. "Be advised that we're leaving range to avoid detection."

"Busy, busy," Oz commented as Colonel Carter started to plug in her own computer tablet.

"Just another day at the office," she agreed. "What have you got?

"Not a lot," Oz admitted. "Don't think these guys use binary."

"They don't," Sam told him. "It's tertiary. There should be an emulator loaded onto your tablet to help you decode it."

"Found it," Oz said a few moments later.

They worked together in companionable silence for several minutes, each working on the shield problem. Eventually Oz frowned, finally realising what had been niggling at him since the earlier radio conversation.

"Uh... guys?" this time it was Oz's turn to speak into his radio as Colonel Carter looked up curiously from her tablet. "Has anyone heard from Andrew and Teal'c? Or Jool?"

**l**

Several minutes earlier Cam had been walking down a hallway of the Ori ship, talking to Sam over the radio when he was shushed by the teenager walking next to him. Who also happened to be the clone of General O'Neill, former leader of SG-1. Cam shut up. At the end of the day, he might technically be O'Neil's superior officer, but the Captain had years of experience on Cam. Once he'd shut up, Cam could hear the distant sound of metal boots marching nearby.

Something scraped along the floor behind him and he and Captain O'Neil whirled to face it, their weapons raised. Four Jaffa soldiers stood behind them, wearing full armour. They were pointing zats at them and as Cam watched, two of them activated their staff weapons.

"Cam? Sir? What's happening?" Sam's voice echoed out of their radios and Cam's hand inched up towards it as he shot a look of warning over at Captain O'Neil.

"Not much," Cam said into his radio, pressing down the button to activate it. "But we've got ourselves some company."

"Bo'rel has claimed this vessel in the name of the Jaffa Free Nation," the one in the lead announced. "Surrender!"

"Slow down, brother," Cam told him. "We were here first."

"Cam, report!" Sam's voice echoed out of his radio.

"It's alright, Sam," Cam told her. "Just a little misunderstanding with some of our Jaffa friends. Go back to work."

"There is no misunderstanding!" snapped the talkative Jaffa. "The victory is ours, and therefore the spoils!"

"Victory?" scoffed Jon O'Neil. "Is that what you're calling mass murder these days?"

"They had joined with the enemy," the Jaffa informed him.

"They were invaded by an army with massively superior firepower," Cam pointed out. He could feel control of the situation slipping away from him. If he'd ever had it to begin with.

"They should have resisted," the Jaffa said stubbornly. "No-one is innocent who joins with my enemy."

"Gee," snarked Jon O'Neil. "Wish we'd known you felt that way when we helped you _overthrow_ the _Goa'uld_!"

The lights in the hallway flickered and the Jaffa reacted, spooked. Cam glanced at O'Neil, who was looking at him with a gleam in his eye. Sam... Well, he'd told her to go back to work.

"Enough of this!" snapped the head Jaffa. "The ship is ours! We have already captured Teal'c and the boy who accompanies him. Now lower your weapons."

"Yeah..." Cam said slowly, struck by the mention of Teal'c and Andrew. "That's not gonna happen."

"Mitchell," O'Neil muttered and Cam turned to see what he was staring at.

Another Jaffa patrol had flanked them and was trying to get the drop on them from the right. Cam fired at them. Simultaneously, O'Neil opened fire on the Jaffa in front of them. Cam sensed, rather than saw, them duck for cover but he was too busy keeping the other patrol busy. A zat blast hit him and Cam crumpled to the floor, his limbs like jelly, but somehow, still conscious.

**l**

On Camelot, enduring an impromptu and lengthy farewell ceremony, Faith suddenly found herself with pins and needles. All over. Like she had with Muerik's speech, she gritted her teeth and bore it.

**l**

Cam fought to focus his eyes on O'Neil's boots as the Captain backed up, seeking cover. The radio on Cam's chest burst into life as his teammates panicked but he couldn't reach it to let them know what was happening. Metal boots appeared behind O'Neil's black SGC-issue and Cam opened his mouth to croak a warning. Too late.

O'Neil collapsed to the floor, his head facing away from Cam. Cam couldn't be sure, but he was willing to bet he was unconscious. Footsteps approached him and Cam shut his eyes, praying like hell that his warning had gone unheard over the sound of weaponsfire.

"Pick them up," the head Jaffa ordered. "We'll take them to Bo'rel."

Interesting. So the chatty Jaffa wasn't the one in charge. Cam sagged as two people grabbed hold of his arms. He was starting to get some feeling back in his fingers and toes and he twitched his big toe, just to make sure he could. He started planning his next move, ready for when the effects of the zat wore off enough.

Something barrelled into the Jaffa holding his right arm, pulling him away. Falling, Cam grabbed hold of the other Jaffa's arm with his left hand, yanking him off-balance. Sprawled together in a heap on the floor, Cam flailed his way on top of the Jaffa, punching him as hard as he could.

The Jaffa threw him aside. Landing in a heap against the wall, Cam watched the Jaffa rise, heading straight for the redhead currently fighting two Jaffa further down the hallway. Reaching for the zat strapped to his thigh, Cam shot him before he got there.

He couldn't get a clear shot on the last two Jaffa though. Not that it mattered. Grabbing hold of each Jaffa's head, Jool backed out from between the two men, knocking their heads together in the space she had just vacated. Cam winced as the two Jaffa slid to the floor. That had sounded painful. Without even looking at Cam, Jool hurried over to O'Neil, crouching beside him to check his pulse.

"Captain?" she said gently. "Can you hear me?"

"Jool..." Cam croaked and she stiffened, her head snapping up to look at him. For a moment, he thought he saw something predatory in her eyes and then it vanished.

"Colonel!" she exclaimed, surprised. "I thought you were unconscious."

"Should be," Cam told her hoarsely, pushing himself to his feet. His legs weren't quite ready to support him yet, so he leaned against the wall until they were. "Got zatted."

"You look remarkably conscious for someone who just got shot with a zat," she commented, producing a penlight from her BDU breast pocket and shining it in his eyes. Cam winced as the bright light hit the back of his skull. "It must not have been a direct hit. Lucky for you. How do you feel?"

"Like crap," Cam informed her succinctly as Sam announced over the radios that the Odyssey couldn't beam them out. "Don't!" he warned Jool as she reached for her radio to participate in the conversation. "They've already got Andrew and Teal'c. Probably listening in."

Jool frowned, clicking her penlight off, to Cam's relief, and popping it back into her pocket. "Okay..." she said slowly. "What do we do?" Cam stared at her and she shrugged. "I'm a slayer," she explained. "Point me at the Ori or demons and I slay. Stick me in front of aliens and I flounder. I didn't even realise what I was sensing was Jaffa until I got here."

"Help me get O'Neil to the bridge," Cam told her. Sam and Oz were there. They could look after the Captain until he woke up and he could help them defend the bridge if necessary. "Then we'll get Teal'c back."

"What about Andrew?" Jool asked, pulling her backpack off her shoulders.

"And Andrew," said Cam as she pulled a long coil of rope out of her backpack. "How could I forget Andrew?"

"You sure you're alright to move?" Jool asked him solicitously, cutting off smaller lengths of rope.

"I'll walk it off," Cam told her, frowning. What was she planning on doing with the rope?

All became clear when she trussed up the nearest Jaffa and tossed him into a nearby room. Remarkably quickly, she had all of the Jaffa similarly disposed of, and the door shut on them all. Stuffing the rest of the rope back in her backpack, she quickly shouldered the heavy pack, leaning over to carefully pick up O'Neil.

"Want me to carry his pack?" Cam offered, pushing himself away from the wall and walking over to them on legs that were definitely wobbly. Jool looked at him and bit her lip, her eyes dancing merrily as O'Neil's head lolled against her shoulder.

"What?" Cam asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," she said diffidently, turning to go. "It's just I was going to ask if you wanted me to carry yours."

"Thanks," Cam told her sardonically, falling in beside her. "But no thanks. I can manage."

**l**

The ceremony was gruelling. The sun shone directly overhead, beaming down on the heads of people gathered in front of the empty stone. Faith was gasping for something to drink by the time Meurik finished his lengthy speech. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the ceremony. Oh, no! According to Meurik, the villagers had some small tokens of esteem that they wished to bestow on Faith and her followers...

Those small tokens of esteem had turned out to be baskets of food, bolts of cloth, more dresses, live chickens, jewellery, cooking pots filled with herbs and spices, perfume... the list went on and the heap got bigger. It looked like everyone there had brought something to give the slayers. No-one had given them shoes yet, Faith noticed. And apparently word had gone round that they were looking for weapons because there was an arsenal building up in a separate heap. Faith already had her eye on a set of five matched throwing knives and one of the longbows. She couldn't wait to find out if the Prior's shields protected them from arrows...

It was getting out of hand though. There was no way they could carry this much stuff. Faith was about to call a halt to it when she noticed the small parcel being placed almost directly in front of her. Pushing her way forward, through the piles of stuff, she stopped the woman who'd put it down, grabbing hold of her by the wrist to prevent her from slipping into the crowd as Faith scooped up the folded back leather.

It felt buttery soft in her hands. Shaking the folds out, Faith examined the leather pants closely. They looked exactly like the demon-goo covered pair she'd had in her bag when she'd left Earth, but this pair clearly hadn't been made in a factory. Faith had a strange feeling they'd be her size too.

"Do you not like them?" the young woman asked anxiously.

"Love 'em," Faith told her, letting go. "Wondered where you got the design." The woman's eyes flickered past Faith, up at the slayers still gathered around the stone. Faith sighed, "Val..."

She'd known there was something off about Val's reaction to the mention of her bag. Clearly, the newest slayer had clearly rifled through it before she'd handed it over to Daniel.

"Is there a problem?" Meurik asked, popping up beside them.

"Actually, yeah," Faith told him turning to face him. She vaguely noticed the woman slip away but Faith had other things on her mind. "That's enough."

"I beg your pardon?" Meurik asked, confused.

"Stuff," Faith explained, waving her arm at the piles of goods heaped in front of the slayers. "We really appreciate all of it, but we can't carry that much."

"Fendrel and Brom have already anticipated that problem," Meurik informed her, beckoning someone forward.

Faith watched in amazement as the crowd shifted and two men led a horse and cart forward. She'd assumed the horse and the cart it was attached to were background decoration, not yet another gift. Shoulda remembered... Never assume.

"M, we can't take that," Faith told him once she'd picked her jaw up off the floor. "There's no way in hell we'd get a horse and cart through the Stargate."

"Yes, we can," Mallie piped up. "Easily." Faith glared at her. Mallie bounced excitedly, "_Please_ can we keep him?"

"You think you can get a horse and cart through the 'Gate?" Faith asked her dubiously. Mallie nodded. "This I gotta see. Pack it up. We're leaving."

"Now?" asked Meurik, taken aback.

"Now," Faith told him.

She kept a tight hold on her brand-new leather pants until they were safely stowed in her bag.

**l**

In an entirely separate plane of existence two beings met in a place (as far as such a plane can be said to have places, or even something as basic as geography) where the planet known to a select few from Earth as P3X-29J could be easily observed. Not that beings of such power required to visit such a place (if you can call it a place) to observe the lower planes, but it was more convenient to ensure that they were both observing the same details.

"The Believer has survived," announced the first being, who was the second to speak on their previous encounter.

"I am aware," said the second being, who had spoken first the last time. "You have failed. Again."

"Not I," protested the first being. "I have placed the other Champion in position, ready to be Called to the Omega's cause, and arranged their reunion to come. Ensuring the Orici did not find the Believer was your responsibility."

"It was not," objected the second speaker. "I had no such responsibility."

"I beg to differ," the first being said politely. "Am I expected to do everything for you? Might I remind you that I have my own plans in place to prevent the Orici from threatening us?"

"Plans which I am also assisting you with," the second being pointed out frostily.

There was an angry silence as both beings shielded themselves from the other. Natural enemies, even the thought of working together was anathema to them but more was at stake then themselves, and they had been forced to collaborate. The Ori and their Avatar posed a serious threat to the Powers that inhabited this plane. For all their sakes, these two beings were co-ordinating their defence.

Eventually the first being opened itself to the other, its tone smooth and soothing, "Come, we must work together," it said. "And this is not the disaster it seems."

"How so?" the second being asked suspiciously. "The Orici begins to gather her Oriclave."

"The Omega's coven numbers more," the First pointed out. "Now that the Believer is Clava, the Omega will activate her substitution in her stead and she will have the full complement by her side when the time comes."

"But the endgame!" fretted the second being. "With Clava by her side, the Orici will be too powerful."

"Not if all goes to plan..." the First said with a hint of satisfaction.

There was a silence and then the second being cautiously asked, "Which plan?"

**l**

Oz frowned as he skimmed through the coding scrolling down his screen. At first the Ori coding had seemed like gibberish, but since Colonel Carter had taught him how to convert tertiary coding into binary and he'd cracked that they were using base-eight, it was making a lot more sense. Except for one thing...

"Uh... Colonel Carter?" he said hesitantly.

Looking up, Sam smiled at him. "Call me Sam, Oz," she told him. "What is it?"

"Could be reading this wrong," Oz admitted, shrugging. "But I'm pretty sure you didn't switch the shields on."

Sam frowned. She'd rapidly been working towards the same conclusion herself, tracing back to try to reverse what she'd done but how had Oz reached it before her? She'd had to show him how to read the tertiary coding...

"What have you got?" she asked, abandoning her tablet to move over to his side of the room.

"I went through the ships log," Oz told her, angling his computer tablet so she got a good view of what he was working on. "The shields came on shortly after we beamed aboard. We hadn't found this place then."

"Good work," Sam complimented, her mind racing.

If the shields had been activated before they'd found the control room then that meant that someone else was in control of the ship. Which in turn meant that their position had been compromised. Reaching for her radio to inform Daniel and Vala, she paused as it crackled to life.

"This is a message to all of the Tau'ri on board this vessel," a deep, unfamiliar voice announced. Sam's eyes met Oz's and her hand dropped away from her radio as the voice continued, "My name is Bo'rel. My brothers and I have taken this ship in the name of all free Jaffa. We have Teal'c and the _boy_," Bo'rel sneered the word. "Who accompanies him in custody. Surrender now and no harm will come to them."

Sam whispered to Oz as she realised, "He didn't mention Cam or the Captain."

"If you do not identify yourselves immediately, we will have no choice but to assume your intentions are hostile," Bo'rel told them. "In which case, we will deal with the prisoners harshly."

Sam and Oz stared at each other. Sam bit her lip, wondering what Cam, or the General would do now. Should she answer?

"So be it," Bo'rel said finally.

"No! Wait!" Andrew's panicked voice was the next thing to come out of the radios attached to their chests and Oz rolled his eyes at his teammate's histrionics. The sound of a staff weapon opening carried clearly over the radios and Andrew said in a very, very small voice... "I don't want to die..."

Sam's hand was already halfway up to her radio when the doors to the room opened and it changed course, heading for her gun instead. Oz had no need to resort to a weapon. At his will, his body half-shifted into that of the wolf, his face lengthening and teeth sharpening, claws sprouting from his fingernails and his stance shifting as he bolted to his feet before Sam had drawn her gun.

"Nobody answer that!" Cam ordered as he and Jool hurried through the door, the latter carrying Captain O'Neil. "Whoa!" Cam recoiled at the sight of one gun and a half-shifted werewolf staring him in the face.

"Bo'rel, this is Daniel Jackson of SG-1," Daniel's voice blurted out of the five radios in the room simultaneously.

"God dammit, Jackson!" Cam swore, kicking the plinth of the Ori control chair.

"What happened?" Sam asked Jool as the red-haired slayer set the Captain gently down on the floor.

"They got zatted," Jool quickly filled her in. "Cam only got a partial blast."

Cam frowned as he listened to Jackson try to convince this Bo'rel that they should work together. He knew full well that he'd gotten the full blast of the zat earlier, he could remember the bolt hitting him. But here he stood, chasing the last of the pins and needles from his extremities. Pins and needles...?

"You doubt our ability to fly this ship?" Bo'rel's insulted voice brought him back to the conversation he was eavesdropping on. So the negotiations weren't going well then.

"I'm just saying, there's not a lot of time," Jackson placated him. "And it would be in everyone's best interest if we pooled our resources."

"My orders are to take this ship and all on board," Bo'rel said furiously. "You will reveal your location to me now!"

Jackson hesitated before replying, and when he did it was in a very different tone, "Uh... That won't be necessary."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Cam exclaimed. "At least things can't get any worse."

Oz groaned as Sam replied, "Actually, Cam..."

"You just jinxed it," said Oz.

**l**

Walking round the altar they had been sheltering behind, with their empty hands raised above their heads, Daniel and Vala shared a glance, each drawing comfort from the fact that the other looked unconcerned. In truth, both had separately and jointly been in worse circumstances in the past and each was confident in their ability to talk, or otherwise extricate themselves from the situation. Besides, they had several people on their side who had yet to be captured.

"You're making a big mistake," Daniel told the four Jaffa confidently as he and Vala stood where they were shoved and roughly patted down for hidden weapons. "More Ori ships will be here soon."

"Mmm-hmm!" Vala agreed emphatically, nodding.

"Then they will suffer the same fate," the Jaffa holding their radios informed them.

"I think not," disagreed an all-too-familiar female voice.

With a feeling of dread, Vala looked around the empty room, searching for the source of the voice. Beside her, Daniel did the same as a familiar black-haired girl in a blue dress sped into the room, crashing into the nearest Jaffa and knocking him to the ground as her foot lashed out to kick another in the head. Daniel and Vala exchanged bemused looks as the girl knocked another Jaffa out with an uppercut before whirling on the fourth. A statuesque brunette woman with eyes the colour of whiskey appeared in the open doorway, clad in a floor-length golden gown complete with a thick choker in the same fabric, clinging to the doorframe to support herself.

"Adria?" Vala gasped, feeling as through the floor had just dropped out of her stomach as the last Jaffa hit the floor. So much for an easy escape...

Next to her, Daniel quickly knelt, scooping up a zat that had landed near him and pointing it at Adria. Against his will, his hand opened, the weapon tumbling uselessly to the floor as a staff weapon levitated up, pointing at him. It activated and Daniel's arms moved up, his hands encircling his throat as Adria forced him to strangle himself and the teenaged girl took an angry step towards him.

"Okay!" Vala burst out. "We all know darling, that you have telekinetic powers. You can stop showing off now!"

Just like that, Adria dropped the staff weapon, sagging further. Daniel's hands relaxed their grip, although she kept them wrapped around his throat for now. A reminder of what she was capable of.

"Mother," Adria smiled happily despite her weariness. "I knew you would come back for me."

"What happened?" asked Vala as the black-haired girl moved towards her daughter.

"She exhausted herself protecting me," the girl told her, easily supporting Adria's weight and helping her to enter the room.

"How is it that you're even alive?" Vala wondered. "Everyone else on the planet was killed."

"The Divinity's necklace," the girl said and Daniel frowned up at her.

"It holds a piece of the Holy City of Celestis," Adria explained weakly. "It protects me, keeps me safe."

"Oh," said Vala, wishing it didn't.

"You keep _me_ safe," the black-haired girl said to Adria, gazing adoringly at her. At their waist-level, Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Always," Adria told her seriously, caressing her cheek before she turned to Vala. "Oh, Mother, I've missed you," she said, wrapping her arms around her. "They said I should forget about you. That you had abandoned me because you didn't care."

"No," Vala told her, awkwardly returning the embrace.

"Soon the other ships will come for us," Adria said to Vala. "And once we're back with the fleet, I promise you Mother, we'll never be separated again."

**l**

"We need a plan," said Cam.

"You and Oz go rescue Andrew and Teal'c," suggested Jool, dumping her pack on the command chair and opening it. "I'll go get Daniel and Vala while Colonel Carter looks after the Captain and works on a distraction."

"Good plan," Cam approved as Jool began to pull various pieces of medieval weaponry out of her bag, discarding each one. "Once we've got everyone, we get the hell off this ship, understood? We don't know who's in control here, but it sure as hell ain't us."

"I think I can cut the power to the whole ship," Sam told them, as Jool hefted a mace thoughtfully. "The Odyssey still can't help us, it's too far from range, but it must just buy us the time we need to get off the ship."

"Yank it as soon as you hear we've got the others," Cam told her. "We need every advantage we can get."

"I'll keep radio silence until you give the okay," Jool said, snapping the head off the mace and swinging the improvised cudgel experimentarily.

"Why don't you take the staff," Sam suggested.

Looking at the Prior's staff that lay on the floor, Jool shuddered. That thing was evil... she could feel it spilling off in waves from the staff, like an oil slick. "Rather not if I'm honest," she admitted, stuffing her rejected weapons back in her large bag. Looking at the sheer amount of weaponry she could pack in there, Cam was surprised that she hadn't clanked like the Tin Man as she'd walked earlier.

"Why not?" Sam asked, curious.

"Because-" Jool started to snap, bracing one hand on the hand rest of the Ori control chair.

The chair lit up and several new lines of data spilled across the screens surrounding the room. Jool snatched her hand away as the others stared at her in shock, backing away from the chair as the lights faded and the data disappeared.

"Huh," said Oz.

**l**

Vala watched her daughter suddenly frown, glancing up a section of the ceiling. Unnoticed by Adria or the young girl accompanying her, Daniel and Vala exchanged a desperate look. They needed to get out of there, as soon as possible, before the other Ori ships showed up. But how were they going to escape from Adria? Unless, Vala suddenly realised, they took her with them...

"Listen," Vala said suddenly, seizing her chance, and Adria's hands, while she had it. "We're not rejoining the fleet. You're coming with me."

"What about Deama?" Adria asked, glancing at the girl.

"She can come with us," Vala recklessly promised. She glanced at Daniel, who looked horrified at the thought.

"No," Adria pulled her hands away, rejecting the idea. "I cannot abandon my army."

"It's not your army," Vala told her.

"Of course it is," Adria insisted.

"Well, as your Mother, I'm putting my foot down," Vala informed her. "You're too young to have an army."

"They look to me for guidance, for protection," Adria told her. She turned to Daniel, saying ominously, "And for answers." She released Daniel's arms, concentrating on forcing him to answer as she demanded, "Tell me what happened to my people here on this planet."

His eyes caught in her, Daniel gritted his teeth, refusing to let the answer pass his lips. Pain wracked his body and he shook violently with the effort of resisting her.

"No," Vala protested. "D-Don't. He doesn't know anything!"

Daniel's tongue twisted in his mouth, forming the shape of the words he refused to say. Pain passed into agony as Adria attempted to pull the information from him.

"Adria!" Vala snapped, breaking the Orici's concentration.

Daniel sagged back, gasping for air as he massaged his sore throat, staring up at Adria. And he'd thought the Goa'uld hand device was bad? His brain felt like Adria had just shoved it through a juicer.

"You have a strong mind," Adria told him, and Daniel had a horrible feeling that she meant it as a compliment. And possibly something she was looking forward to breaking.

Kneeling beside him, Vala slipped her arms around him, helping him steady himself. Breathing began to come more easily and Daniel relaxed as Adria walked past them, the young Deama following her. Towards one of the unconscious Jaffa... Suddenly, the bad feeling in the pit of Daniel's stomach was back as Vala helped him to stand.

"Wake up, Jaffa!" Adria commanded and the Jaffa's eyes snapped open, a look of confusion on his face. Adria smiled at him, "Welcome back."

Bending down, Deama pulled the disorientated Jaffa to his feet, easily holding him immobile in front of Adria.

"Now tell me," the Orici said to him as he struggled against Deama's grip. "What happened to the believers who came to spread Origin to this world?"

The Jaffa remained silent and there was a muffled snap as Deama broke one of his fingers. The Jaffa grunted, but refused to reply.

Adria's eyes narrowed before she strove for a more reasonable tone, "Yours is a backward people," she told him. "Too primitive to have created such an effective weapons. So tell me... how did it come into your hands?"

Another snap and still the sweating Jaffa refused to reply.

"Tell me!" she insisted as Deama broke another finger, twisting the Jaffa's wrist painfully.

"Stop it," Vala objected, stepping forward.

With a flick of her wrist, Adria sent her mother tumbling backwards. Only years of honing his reflexes meant that Daniel caught Vala before she hit the altar with considerable force. Still, the impact hurt her.

"Don't interfere, Mother!" Adria snapped, her eyes intent on the Jaffa. "Where, Jaffa...?"

**l**

Under certain circumstances, even having to abandon a technically superior spaceship because a mysterious other person was in control of it had its upsides, Jool reflected as she sprinted through the ship's corridors. For example, it meant that there wasn't enough time to play Spanish Inquisition with a certain slayer and the Ori control chair. No sitting in the comfy chair for Jool... Which was good, because that small glimpse she'd got of the inside of an Ori Mothership was more than enough for one day. Possibly even the rest of the year.

Colonel Carter had only had a few moments to babble excitedly after Jool had accidentally activated the chair before Cam had interrupted her, but the blonde astrophysicist had made the most of it. Fortunately, as Cam had reminded his teammate, they didn't have time to stop and run experiments. They had to get off the ship. Which meant that Jool had to find Vala and Daniel. Not as easy as tracking down say, a werewolf, in the large ship. At least she knew where she'd left them. They couldn't have got into too much trouble in the meantime, surely? After all, they were kind of under armed guard...

**l**

Jon groaned as consciousness began to return to him, lifting one hand to cradle his aching head. He was lying flat on his back, and the Jaffa who'd jumped Mitchell and him hadn't bothered to tie up his legs either. That was good.

"Si-Captain," said Carter and Jon frowned. When had the Jaffa captured her? "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap," Jon told her succinctly, opening his eyes and pushing himself up into a sitting position to discover that not only had Carter not been captured but that, apparently, neither had he. His former second in command was hunched over her tablet computer, currently hooked into an Ori computer in what looked like it was probably the ship's control room. Jon frowned, "What happened, Car-Colonel?"

**l**

Outside the room where Bo'rel was keeping Teal'c and Andrew, Cam watched in amazement as Oz sketched his plan of attack in the air with concise gestures. The gestures might not be military-standard, but they got the message across easily enough. Basically, Oz's plan was to enter the room, chasing the two Jaffa within out so that Cam could shoot them. Cam frowned, seeing a fatal flaw. Why would the Jaffa run from Oz?

"Gotta change," Oz whispered almost silently, slipping into the room next door and Cam suddenly remembered.

Oz was a werewolf. The thought of the half-man, half-wolf creature that had greeted Jool and him when they had entered the ship's bridge should have been enough to keep that fact firmly in the front of his mind but the laconic, currently red-haired, man was so laid back usually that it was easy to forget his supernatural background, especially when he was at his mild-mannered human height of five foot four.

The beast that joined him would have been taller than Cam if it had travelled erect. Instead, it shuffled on all fours in a shambling gait. When it caught Cam's eye, Cam could almost have sworn that it chuckled. It lined itself up with the wall opposite the door, crouching and meeting Cam's eyes again. A nod to Cam and a bound later and the werewolf was gone, springing off the wall to launch itself into the room.

Panicked shouts and cries immediately echoed from the room, followed swiftly by the sounds of alien weapons activating. Concerned about Oz and the others' safety, Cam used the noise to mask the sound of his own zat opening. Two Jaffa tumbled backwards out of the room, firing wildly back the way they had come. Easy pickings for Cam. Two Jaffa hit the floor.

Oz padded out of the room, his mouth wide open and his tongue lolling as his breaths huffed and wheezed out of his throat. Cam frowned, reaching out and giving his fur a rough stroke as he passed.

"You okay?" he asked when the werewolf Oz paused to look up at him quizzically.

Panting, Oz nodded his canine head up and down and carried on, back into the room he'd used to change. Cam went ahead, to free Teal'c and Andrew. To his surprise, Teal'c was already stood at a large table, picking through the SG equipment there to find his own. Andrew was still gagged and tied to a chair, making moaning sounds and rolling his eyes at Cam.

"All right guys, lets hustle," Cam told them, grabbing his knife and heading over to Andrew. "It's time to get off this gravyboat."

"We are in fact aboard an Ori Mothership," Teal'c informed him, picking up his packs of C-4 and stowing them in his breast pocket.

"Yeah, well, it's one ship we don't have control of," Cam updated him as Andrew stood and stretched, reaching for his gag. "Time to get gone."

"Oh my God!" Andrew babbled excitedly as soon as his gag was loose enough for him to talk. "Did you see their faces? That was so cool! I wish I'd got it on tape, we could have called it When Werewolves Go Bad!"

"Good," Oz corrected him mildly, with only a hint of hurt, doing up his shirt as he entered the room. "No Jaffa were bitten in the making of this program."

**l**

Standing in front of the DHD, Faith took a deep breath. The others were staring at her, and Liss was standing just behind her, peering over Faith's shoulder, notebook and pen in hand as she waited for Faith to start pressing buttons. As usual, Faith had no clue which ones to press. Mentally shrugging, she reached out and hit seven glyphs at random.

The inner circle of the Stargate in front of them began spin, and the horse shifted restlessly. Mallie had blindfolded the animal but his nostrils flared as the Stargate selected the glyphs and he gave a panicked whinny when it activated. Mallie calmed the beast as Faith turned to her.

"Okay, Mallie," Faith said with a grin as Liss wrote the Stargate address into her notepad. "You're up!"

Faith watched with first amusement and then disbelief as Mallie led the blindfolded horse up the stone steps leading to the Stargate. The stuff in the cart shifted dramatically when it hit the incline and there was the sound of breaking crockery. A cabbage fell out of the back while muscles twitched restlessly beneath the horse's coat. Mallie stroked his neck, muttering soothing noises as she urged him on, up the steps and through the Stargate.

"Fuck me," Faith said weakly, amazed.

**l**

Vala cringed, hiding her face in Daniel's shirt as Daema plunged her hand deep into the Jaffa's stomach and he howled in agony. Although Daema couldn't have been older than fifteen, she easily held the Jaffa with one hand as he struggled against her.

"Where is the weapon?" the Orici demanded.

"Da..." the Jaffa she held captive struggled against her, the answer choking its way up his throat despite his best efforts to stop it. "Dakara."

Adria nodded and Daema snapped his neck. Vala flinched at the sound, moving closer to Daniel for comfort. Her own daughter terrified her, she realised with sickening fear as the Jaffa's lifeless body fell in a crumpled heap on the floor. What had she given birth to?

"Dakara..." Adria mused.

Which is exactly when ten stone, five foot and eight inches of enraged red-haired Englishwoman barrelled into the room, intent solely on slaying the giant source of evil in front of her. Unfortunately, all she had to accomplish that task with was a stick. It was a thick stick, which had until very recently been a mace, but it was a stick nonetheless. And Adria had a slayer to protect her. Daniel jumped convulsively at the sight of Jool and Vala turned to look as the two slayers clashed in the middle of the room.

"No!" cried Vala, breaking away from Daniel and rushing towards them as Deama hit Jool.

Moving quickly, Adria restrained her as Jool swept Deama's legs from underneath her. "Careful Mother," she cautioned. "My Clava can dangerous, as I well know." The Orici frowned broodingly as the two slayers wrestled for the upperhand on the floor.

"Jool wouldn't hurt me!" Vala protested, struggling to get past her while Deama bashed Jool's head against the floor. Repeatedly. "She's my friend."

"But Deama might," Adria said smoothly, and Vala stilled, cautiously looking at her. "And that would be... unfortunate."

Jool had stopped moving and Deama smashed her head into the floor one last time before she rose to her feet, calmly walking towards Adria and Vala. "I would not harm the Holy Mother," she protested mildly and Adria smiled gently at her as Daniel slipped by them to kneel by Jool's side.

"You killed her!" Vala accused.

"She's alive," announced Daniel, his fingers on Jool's pulse.

Adria smiled at Deama again. "Good," she praised and Deama beamed at her. Reaching out, Adria enfolded Vala into another hug. "You have brought me another Clava," she said gratefully. "I could not have asked for a better gift."

Behind Adria and Deama's backs, Vala's worried eyes met Daniel's troubled blue-eyed gaze. They were in serious trouble. Adria was alive and onboard, and their strongest fighter had just been neutralised. Could things get any worse?

"Okay, gang," Mitchell's voice came from their radios and they both stiffened as Adria let go of Vala. "Time to get the hell out of Dodge."

"Too late," Adria commented coldly. They stared at her and the lights went out.

Adria scowled and concentrated.

"On our wa..." Sam started to say over the radios, her voice tapering off as the lights came back on and the distant whine of engines began to build.

"Sam?" Mitchell questioned.

"I didn't do it!" Sam said, her voice panicky as the ship began to lift off.

"Jool, you there?" demanded Mitchell. "Jackson? Vala!"

**l**

Faith felt Adria as soon as she stepped out of the Stargate, her flesh crawling under her skin. In front of her, a tense Mallie was leading the horse and cart down the stone steps of the Stargate platform, staring straight ahead at the village in the distance and the Mothership rising above it. Faith stared at it as the other appeared out of the active wormhole behind her, knowing that there was nothing she could do to prevent the ship from leaving, while her slayer senses were screaming at her to move, to attack.

"Adria!" spat Liss.

With a bound, the Langaran Slayer was on her way down the steps, sprinting towards the village. Nya moved a split second after her, rapidly overtaking her despite the fact that the Ori ship was accelerating fast, soon a distant pinprick in the sky which disappeared entirely, taking Faith's wiggins with it.

"Wait!" Faith yelled after them as the others shifted restlessly behind her and Mallie stared up at her, waiting for her orders. Nya and Liss paid absolutely no attention to her, streaking towards the village. Reluctantly, Faith sighed. Suddenly she had a lot of sympathy for Giles, who she and B had often left trailing far behind in their dust.

"Let's go get 'em back," she told the others, trudging down the steps.


	26. Slayer's Gambit 2 of 3: Castling Planets

**A/N:**

Sorry! In recompense, have an exceptionally long chapter...

**Slayers Gambit Part 2/3: Castling Planets**

Onboard the Odyssey, Colonel Emerson watched the ship's sensors greatly-enhanced view of the distant short-lived battle as the Ori Mothership lifted itself from the planet's surface, destroying the three Jaffa ships in orbit as it broke atmosphere and accelerated beyond the resulting debris to make the jump into hyperspace.

"Long-range scans are detecting no transmitter signals from the surface of the planet," Marks informed him soberly. He brightened hopefully, "Is it possible SG-1 and Thirteen escaped through the 'Gate?"

"Well if they had, Stargate Command would have given us the heads up by now," Emerson said regretfully, frowning as he thought the situation through. "No, it's more likely they're still on board that ship."

"Sir, if that's the case, and it's on its way to rendezvous with the rest of the Ori fleet, then we've lost them," Marks said soberly.

"Maybe not," Emerson told him. "We may still have a chance at rescuing them, provided that ship is headed where I think it is. Major, set a course for Dakara."

**l**

"Liss!" bellowed Faith. "Nya!"

There was no sign of either of them by the time the others reached the deserted village. More worryingly, the only signs that the village might be inhabited were the clothes and armour strewn around the place, and the smoke still rising from several chimneys. One of the sets of armour clanked as Val picked up the helmet, trying it on for size. It dwarfed her head.

"Grab the weapons," Faith instructed. Weapons were more useful than badly-fitting armour, which would only slow them down. She yelled again, "Ny!"

"What happened here?" Mallie asked in a hushed whisper, climbing down from the cart to stand by Faith's side.

"Adria happened," Faith said grimly, looking around. But why would Adria kill her own soldiers?

"Faith!" Liss' voice came from above, and Faith looked up to see the blonde slayer standing on a balcony, holding a Prior's staff.

"Where's Nya?" Faith asked her. Liss shrugged. "Get down here," Faith told her. "We're leaving as soon as we find her."

Rolling her eyes, Liss obeyed, disappearing from sight. The horse shifted restlessly in the cart traces and Mallie dropped back to comfort it as the others began to spread out. Jem shuddered as he accidentally stepped on one of the sets of clothing, quickly lifting his foot off. He definitely preferred Camelot to this new world, he decided.

Different thoughts were going through Faith's mind. As well as her frustration at Nya's disappearance and confusion about what had happened here, she was wondering just what they were doing there. So far, every time she'd dialled the 'Gate they'd found a Slayer, but there was no-one left alive here to find. Whistler had hinted that the Powers were guiding her to the slayers, but why had they sent her here? What had Adria done to the people of this planet, and why?

"Found her!" Kay's shout lifted Faith's head.

"Great," Faith said as Kay led Nya into view. "Time to get the hell outta Dodge."

"Is that where we are?" Val asked her. "Dodge?"

"Not exactly Kansas, is it?" Faith told her. Val frowned in confusion and Faith sighed. "No."

As Mallie began to laboriously turn the horse and cart around in the small square, taking care not to run over any of the clothing scattered around, Faith frowned, approaching her as Liss appeared in the doorway of the building, minus the Prior's staff.

"Mallie..." Faith said awkwardly. "We can't take him with us."

"Why not?" Mallie frowned, stroking the horse's neck.

"We don't know where we're going next," Faith told her. "There might not be a road. It could be dangerous."

"So you want to just leave Flash here?" Mallie demanded, throwing a possessive arm around the horse's neck. "All on his own, with no-one to care for him?"

"Flash?" Faith questioned. "Never mind. Look Mallie, he'll be five by five here. Turn him loose on the way back to the Stargate and he'll be stallion of the world!"

"No," refused Mallie.

"Mallie..." Faith sympathised with her but stayed firm. "You want Adria to turn him into dog meat instead?"

"Fine!" Mallie snapped. "But if he gets eaten by wolves, I am going to blame you!"

"Unlikely," Liss told her, joining them. "Whatever caused this seems to have disintegrated every living being, even the animals."

"Grab what you want from the cart," Faith ordered loudly, so everyone could hear her as shivers went down her spine. This place was even creepier than Sunnydale right before the battle with the First when all the natives had skipped town. "We're getting outta here."

**l**

After the Ori mothership had taken off and made the jump into hyperspace, Carter and Jon had returned to the ship's bridge so that Carter could try to override the primary systems and take back control of the ship. The blonde Colonel was hunched over her computer tablet, seeking a back way in to the Ori control computer, while Jon sat on the podium of the interface chair, his P-90 in his hands as he faced the door, trying to think of another way off the ship.

Surely the Ori had smaller ships onboard? They could take some of those; Jon was as confident in his ability to fly anything as he was Carter's. Mitchell was a good pilot and could probably handle another and in a pinch, Teal'c would manage. Split the non-pilots between them and they could blast out of here.

Not while they were still in hyperspace though. The hyper-accelerated speed would tear small unshielded ships apart. They'd have to wait until they reached their destination before they made a run for it. If the ships weren't coded to pass through the mothership's shields, Carter would still have to override the shield before they could leave.

If they were headed to a planet, and Jon had a horrible feeling that they were and that he knew which one, they could use the rings to transport down to the planet and then hotfoot it through the 'Gate back to the SGC. Providing that whoever was running the ship didn't catch up with them first.

It was all moot anyway unless they could find Space-Monkey, Looney Tunes and the Doc before they got to wherever the hell they were going. Jack had never left a man behind and Jon wasn't about to start now.

He raised his P-90, tensing as he braced the weapon against his shoulder and the door opened. Revealing Mitchell, Teal'c, Oz and Andrew. Disappointed, Jon lowered the rifle. Still no sign of the Doc.

"Here's a question," Mitchell said, strolling forward, his eyes locked on the view of hyperspace out of the window. "Who's flying this boat?"

"Not us," Jon snarked back.

"Apparently so," Teal'c commented peaceably, bowing his head slightly to Jon.

Jon nodded back, standing as he informed them, "Carter's trying to take control of the ship."

"Need a hand?" Oz asked her quietly.

Looking up, Sam smiled her thanks. "I'm trying to override the primary systems," she told him as he slipped the large backpack from his shoulders. "Can you work on deactivating the shields in case I can't crack it in time?"

Oz nodded, heading for the console he had been working on earlier to get set back up again. He pulled his computer tablet out of his pack as Andrew spoke.

"We need a plan," the young Watcher confidently stated the obvious and they all turned to stare at him with varying shades of disbelief. "What do we know?"

"Well," Jon said sarcastically. "We're missing a couple of people..."

"Someone is in remote control of the ship," Sam said, humouring Andrew.

"Probably someone onboard," Oz added helpfully.

"And the only people who can control the ship are Priors?" Jon checked. Carter nodded. "Great!" he exploded. "Don't suppose you happened to pack one of those nifty anti-Prior devices I've heard such good things about?"

"Sorry, sir," Carter said regretfully. "I mean, Captain..."

"Damn," mourned Jon. "Okay... plan B!"

l

Turned out, Faith was right. The next planet they travelled to, the Stargate was in the middle of a dense thicket of woods. No road. Directly in front of them stood a stone pillar and as they assembled at the top of the low Stargate platform, a beam shot out of the top of the pillar, passing over each of them in turn before it deactivated.

"Weird," commented Faith. "Okay, spread out. First person to spot civilisation gets a chocolate bar."

**l**

Although Adria sat with her eyes closed as she restored her depleted power reserves, she was fully aware of all that was going on in the room around her, seeing through Deama's eyes. Her faithful Clava was stationed to one side of the door, close enough to prevent Adria's mother and Daniel Jackson from leaving and yet out of sight of anyone who might look in, although the other intruders onboard the ship were all still far enough away to be no threat. Adria was particularly interested in the feral animalistic mind clustered with the Tau'ri in the control room of the ship. His (she was fairly certain that it was a he) mind was intriguingly elusive.

Not so with her mother and Daniel Jackson. Their minds blazing with untapped power, power that the ascended of this galaxy were too weak to claim for themselves, their thoughts focussed on the Clava sprawled unconscious on the floor. The Clava who had activated the ship's control chair for a few brief moments earlier. Adria's mother had called her Jool. Adria hoped that that was not her real name even as she marvelled that her mother had been with her Clava all this time. They had clearly become close. Perhaps too close.

"I know that Tomin will be happy to see you again," opening her eyes, Adria tried to distract her mother from her friend's fate and appease her at the same time.

"Tomin's alive?" Vala asked her with amazement, successfully distracted, even if only temporarily. "Was he on the planet with you?" She looked around, clearly expecting to see him appear.

"No. I've been travelling with various ships, to many different planets," Adria told Vala, choosing to gloss over her so-far disastrous confrontations with her chosen Clava in favour of impressing her mother with her power. "As leader of this great enlightenment, it's important that I make my presence known. Especially now when the first inroads are being made. Once the rest of the fleet arrives, I'll have a much harder time of it." And a much easier time dealing with Faith and her followers.

"How many other ships are coming?" Daniel asked warily, hoping to glean some information from the encounter.

"Many, many more," answered Adria, which wasn't really an answer at all. Daniel had been hoping for something more concrete, like actual numbers and whether or not they'd be coming via the Supergate. "By my estimation, the galaxy will be converted within the year," Adria informed him.

Great. At least they had a timescale.

**l**

Spotting civilisation on this new planet wasn't as easy as it sounded. For a start, there was no smoke rising into the sky. When they did finally see a roof in the distance, it turned out to belong to the charred ruin of a tumbledown house. Faith kept them moving, heading in a rough spiral out from the 'Gate. Surely the Powers hadn't sent her to another deserted planet? Was this gonna be a recurring theme?

It was getting to the others too. They were silent and wary, sticking close to her whenever they travelled across open ground, and staying within sight when they were amongst the thick trees. Mallie was still sulking about the horse, although she'd cheered up a little since Faith had awarded her a chocolate bar for spotting the roof, even though the house had been a bust.

Finally, just as Faith was about to give up and head back to the Stargate, the slayers heard the unmistakable sound of energy weapons firing in the distance. Instantly they changed direction, sprinting towards the fight. Weaving through trees and bushes almost silently, the slayers were there in a matter of minutes, exploding into a small clearing just as a squadron of five Ori soldiers were about to execute a woman on her knees, a small sobbing girl clinging to her.

Kay fired her staff weapon, killing the soldier aiming his staff at the woman and child, while Faith squeezed off a couple of zat blasts at another of the soldiers. Then the six slayers reached the remaining three soldiers. The fight was over in seconds, leaving three Ori soldiers dead and each slayer itching for more enemies to slay.

"Oh!" gasping, the woman staggered to her feet, holding her daughter close to her, and began to run from them.

"Hey, wait!" Faith called after her. "We're not gonna hurt you!"

Jem, left foundering in their wake when the slayers had run off, stepped out of the trees directly in front of the woman. Taking in his ragged appearance she stopped, her eyes wide as she backed up. Caught between Jem and the slayers, she glanced back and forth between them before her eyes darted off in a different direction.

"My name is Nya," Nya said unexpectedly, holding her hands out peaceably as she approached the woman. "I have a daughter about your girl's age. Her name is Chaia."

"Where is she?" the woman asked suspiciously, cradling her frightened daughter.

"She was stolen from me," Nya told her. "By the woman who commanded these soldiers. Now I travel the worlds with Faith," she gestured to Faith. "Fighting them and searching for her."

"You travel the worlds?" breathed the woman, relaxing as she stared at them in awe. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Earth," Faith volunteered. "Faith. Hi."

"Earth?" momentary confusion clouded the woman's face before her brow cleared. "You mean Midgard. Then," the woman smiled rapturously. "Thor has sent you to aid us in our fight!"

"Thor?" Faith frowned as dormant memories of her long-ago tour of the SGC stirred. Wasn't Thor really a Roswell Grey or some shit like that? "Uh..."

"I am Maeva," the woman told them. "And this is Vedis. Say hello to the women from Midgard, Disa," she said to her daughter. Vedis shook her head, burying her face in her mother's neck. "She is shy," Maeva excused.

"Makes sense," Faith shrugged. "Listen, don't suppose you had nightmares about these guys before they showed up?"

"The Ori?" Maeva frowned, confused. "No. Why?"

"We're looking for a woman who has," Kay told her. "She would also be stronger and faster than any man."

"I know no woman of that description," Maeva told them. "Gairwyn was the strongest woman in the area but she was not stronger than her son, Gunnarr, or her husband while he still lived."

"Where are they?" asked Liss.

"We heard a rumour that Gairwyn was communing with Thor when the Ori destroyed His Hall," Maeva said. "My husband and I were trying to reach the cave on their property when the soldiers found us. We were hoping to find Gunnarr and his friends there."

"Why?" Faith asked, staying clear from the question of what had happened to Maeva's husband. She had a pretty good idea.

"Gunnarr and his men have been fighting the Ori soldiers," Maeva explained. "My husband wished to join them and even if they weren't there, the caves would have been a good place for Disa and I to shelter while he searched for them."

"What's changed?" Faith said with a shrug. "Lead the way."

**l**

"Jackson, come in," Mitchell was speaking into his radio, his head bent to his chest. "Jackson, Vala, can you hear me?" Static was his only reply and he raised his head to look around the crowded room. "We're gonna have to go out there and look for them," he said. "Sam?"

"I'll keep at it," Sam told him, barely raising her head from her computer tablet to glance up.

"Okay, campers," said Jon. "Two teams of two on a level by level search. Top to bottom and bottom to top. Switch to the back-up frequency and keep in radio contact every five minutes. Carter, Oz, you stay here and do what you do best. One of you stay on the old frequency in case the others check in." Catching sight of Mitchell's half-amused, half-chagrined expression as the senior officer steadily regarded him, Jon fumbled to a stop, biting his lip as the tips of his ears turned red. Awkwardly, he continued, "If, of course, that's alright with you, sir?"

Mitchell shrugged good-naturedly, the edges of his mouth curling slightly upwards, "Sounds like a plan."

**l**

After careful observation, Faith wasn't sure Maeva knew where she was taking them. She'd led them on a circuitous route, doubling back several times. They kept climbing the lower slopes of the mountain though, so Faith kept her mouth shut. They were making progress at least, even if it was slower than she would have liked.

They stuck to the trees, avoiding open ground as much as possible. A couple of times, they'd come across abandoned ring platforms, left exposed in the middle of nowhere. Each platform shone like it was brand spanking new and every time they found one, Maeva veered off on one of her side trips. At least they hadn't run into any more Ori patrols, but Faith couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. They were trying to be stealthy, but on the other hand, she was itching for a decent fight. One where she got to do more than just hit someone before Val ran them through with her sword. Clarent! Faith snorted, attracting curious looks from the others. She ignored them.

"We there yet?" she asked Maeva.

"Almost," Maeva told her. "It is not much further. But we should have come across a lookout by now," Maeva frowned, looking worried.

Faith frowned with her. If there was no-one at the cave then she and the others would have to decide whether to keep looking for survivors, and a slayer, on this planet or head to a new one. They'd found Maeva and her kid; there had to be other survivors here. Besides, the Ori were here, and clearly up to something. At the moment, they had no idea that Faith and her girls were also here, and only a couple of clues left behind in a clearing for them to find. This could be an opportunity to catch them with their pants down.

"Halt!" the order came from ahead as Maeva hesitated at the tree-line, peering around anxiously. "Who goes there?"

"It is I, Gunnarr," Maeva announced, stepping out of the trees with her kid in her arms. She motioned for Faith and the others to join her. "I travel with friends."

A man's head popped into view above a boulder as Faith joined Maeva in the open. "Where is Olaf?" he asked suspiciously.

"He has made his journey to Valhalla," Maeva told him, ducking her head as she fought back tears.

"He will be missed," Gunnarr said soberly, walking around the boulder to join them. "We shall drink to honour his memory tonight."

Like Maeva, Gunnarr was dressed in crude leggings and a tunic. His tunic was marginally shorter than Maeva's and he wore no cloak. He carried a large axe, a bow and quiver of arrows slung across his back. His hair was dark. Faith found herself disappointed by the fact that he wasn't wearing a horned helmet.

"Who are your friends?" Gunnarr asked Maeva.

"Faith," Faith introduced herself before Maeva had a chance to tell him. "Mallie, Kay, Nya, Liss, Val and Jem," she pointed out each of the others in turn. "How's it going?"

"You wear the clothing of one from Midgard," Gunnarr pointed out. "Yet your companions do not."

"That's 'cause I'm from Midgard," Faith told him, having already worked out that Midgard was what these people called Earth. "They're not."

"They avenged Olaf's death," Maeva told Gunnarr.

"Our friends from Midgard, and their allies, are always welcome on Cimmeria," Gunnarr announced. "Doubly so in this time of need. Tell me, did Thor send you?"

"Uhh..." Faith said. "Not personally."

"I knew he would not ignore our plight," Gunnarr grinned. "Come, we shall plan our next move."

"Yeah, about that plight," Faith said, following him as he walked back to the boulders. "We kinda missed the details..."

"Surely Thor would not send you into battle without first informing you of what you faced?" Maeva questioned, surprised.

"Battle?" Val asked, grinning.

"Ori 'n' Priors, right?" Faith said with a shrug. "Slayed one, slayed 'em all. We're kinda..." she glanced around at the others, "Shock troops. We just get told where to go."

Even that wasn't true. Faith wasn't happy with the idea of lying to these people but they didn't have time to get into a discussion about whether or not Thor was a God right now. If believing that Thor had sent them meant that these people accepted them quickly, then she'd go along with it. For now. But she wasn't about to like it. It reminded her too much of when she'd first got to Sunnydale, and hadn't bothered telling B she had Kakistos on her tail. She just hoped this didn't come back to bite her on the ass too.

"The Ori appeared over a se'nnight ago," Gunnarr told them as he led them to a mossy outcropping. There was a small gap in the rock wall and Faith guessed that was the cave as Gunnar walked towards it, still talking, "When the people of the city refused to worship their Gods, they destroyed the city. By the time they turned their attention to my land, we were sheltering here."

"My husband and I remained in our home," Maeva took up the tale when Gunnarr broke off to scoop up a small boy who toddled across the cave floor towards him. "A Prior came to see us, to tell us of their Gods. When we remained true to Thor, he punished us by setting fire to our house. My mother died in the blaze."

"I'm sorry," Kay sympathised with her.

"Where is your mother, Brun?" Gunnarr asked the solemn girl who'd followed the boy across the cave, stroking her hair.

"She is lying down," the girl told him. "Her cough is worse."

"Please, excuse me," Gunnarr said to Faith. "I must see to my wife. She is sick. Dago," he spoke to a grey-haired man hunched over the fire. "Stand guard."

"Perhaps I can help," Val offered unexpectedly as Dago nodded, rising to his feet and leaving the cave. "My mother is a healer and she taught me much. I have herbs with me."

"Truly you were sent by the Gods!" Gunnarr said with evident relief. "Hildar is this way."

"So where are the Ori based?" Faith asked Maeva as Gunnarr led Val deeper into the cave system, taking the two children with him and leaving the others with Maeva, Vedis and an old woman who was stirring the large cauldron slung over the open fire. "How far away?"

"They live on their ship," Maeva told her as Vedis squirmed in her arms. She set the young girl down on her feet as she continued, "They use the metal rings they dropped from the sky to appear and attack."

"Cowards!" sniffed the old woman.

"You got that right," Faith told her, frowning.

How the hell were they gonna fight the Ori here if they were all on their ship? Faith made a mental note to check out one of the ring platforms she'd noticed scattered around. Maybe there was a way she could activate them from here. She should take Liss; the Langaran slayer was experienced with alien tech and had worked with Jonas. Except, attacking a spaceship full of soldiers and Priors would be suicide. Faith sighed. They still had a slayer to find before they could leave. What would happen to Maeva and the rest of the people on this planet when they went?

"Faith," Kay said quietly, drawing her away from the group as the newcomers began to settle in.

"What is it?" Faith asked her.

"The people of this planet are being exterminated," Kay whispered, glancing around the cave. "This cave used to shelter many more."

"Props for statin' the obvious," Faith told her quietly. "What's your point?"

"We just left a deserted world where no-one would ever think of looking for them..." Kay suggested.

"You wanna relocate 'em?" Faith frowned as she considered the idea. It was a good one. Plenty of real estate available there and Liss already had the 'Gate address. "You think they'd go?"

"It's worth asking, isn't it?" said Kay.

Faith nodded thoughtfully. It was definitely worth a shot. Hopefully they could convince these people that they'd be better off on a different planet. It shouldn't be too hard, they had to be able to see it for themselves. If she had to, she'd lie and tell 'em Thor had sent her to move 'em.

**l**

Adria was beginning to lose patience with her mother. She kept bringing up objections to Adria's plans now that they had been reunited. It was almost enough to make Adria think that her mother didn't really want to come with her. Until now, Adria had comforted herself with the thought that her mother hadn't really wanted to leave her as her Priors insisted. That she'd been stolen away against her will by the formerly ascended Daniel Jackson. Vala's incessant reasons not to join the Ori fleet were however, beginning to create doubts in the Orici's mind.

"What about Jool?" Vala was saying now, a frown on her face.

"What about her?" Adria asked, the frown crumpling her forehead caused by confusion.

"Well, we're supposed to be having a girl's night in later on this week," Vala hedged. "I'd hate to let her down."

"You will see her again," Adria reassured her. "Once she has accepted her rightful place as a member of my Oriclave I will appoint her your personal bodyguard if that will make you happy."

Vala grimaced, "That's... not really going to work for me, I'm afraid, darling. You see, Jool's my friend," she told her daughter, realising as she spoke that the statement was true. "Not my servant."

Unlike many members of the SGC, Vala had never once felt that Jool was judging her by Earth's standards and finding her wanting, perhaps because English slayer's own standards were already skewed by her long acquaintance with the supernatural. The close association induced by the fact that both women lived at the SGC (and were the only two women who did so on a permanent basis) had meant that they were fated to either become the best of friends or the worst of enemies. Fortunately they'd chosen the former. Almost from the first moment they had met in the commissary, the two women had hit it off. Mitchell, Sam and Muscles? They'd gradually become friends. Jool and Vala had been friends from the first. Vala had come to rely on Jool's bolstering presence almost as much as she did Daniel's. Unlike her attachment to Daniel however, Vala had failed to realise just how much her friend had come to mean to her until she was threatened. Now she did.

"She will still be your friend," Adria told her with a smile. "And you will make many others."

"It won't be the same," insisted Vala.

"I don't know why you're complaining," Adria said with some frustration. "You should be delighted. As mother of the Orici you will be revered by all the followers of Origin."

"Well, while I appreciate the celebrity status, I have to admit it would get very tiresome very quickly," Vala told her daughter. "Especially if I had to perform for the, "she leant against the altar Adria had pushed her into earlier, "For the masses. I'm not very good with crowds." Hadn't been ever since the rebellion that had seen the end of the reign of Qetesh.

"There will be no demands made on you," Adria promised softly. "All you have to do is accept Origin into your heart."

"That could be a problem," Vala admitted blithely.

"Perhaps at first, but eventually you will embrace the truth," Adria said confidently.

"I don't think so," Vala firmly stood her ground, a pitying look in her eyes as she regarded her child.

"You are my mother. If I am unable to convince you, how can I be expected to sway the countless worlds in this galaxy?" Adria asked desperately, her voice firm and clear. "Until I have brought you into the fold, my mission here is a failure."

"I can be very stubborn," Vala told her, meeting Daniel's eyes.

"Mmm-hmm!" he agreed emphatically.

"Then I'll be... patient, and very... determined," Adria said gently, moving closer to her mother.

**l**

It didn't take long for Faith to get the basic four-one-one on the planet and what they were facing, thanks to the old woman. Ursula had been more than happy to fill them in, claiming that she was grateful to have someone new to talk to. And talk she did....

Cutting a long, long story short, the planet (Cimmeria apparently) was under Asgard protection and had been for centuries. There'd been a little hiccup a few years ago when the "Ettins" (whatever they were) had invaded but Thor had apparently shown up in his "chariot" and banished them. Unfortunately, it looked like Thor wasn't available this time round and like the Ettins, the Ori had no misgivings about invading a planet, protected or not.

Apparently last time Cimmerians had been invaded Gunnarr's mother, Gairwyn, had travelled to Thor's Hall with the warriors of Midgard and they had passed his trials to win the right to appeal to Thor directly. Listening to Ursula tell the story, Faith suspected that the Midgard warriors had been SG-1. If only they'd left behind a way to contact Earth to let them know what was happening on Cimmeria. Because when the Ori had invaded, Gairwyn had apparently set off alone to contact Thor again. The Ori had fired on Thor's Hall and Gairwyn never came back. So calling Thor wasn't an option.

Gairwyn's son had gathered his family and friends and fled to the cave system that had apparently protected them during the Ettin's invasion. Initially hopeful that Thor would appear, Gunnarr had led them in raids against the Ori whenever the invaders were in the area. They'd had some success, but they were drastically outnumbered. Initially they'd had some contact with other groups of survivors, but that had dwindled rapidly as the local inhabitants died in skirmishes against the invading army. The last time Gunnarr's group had had contact with other Cimmerians had been several days ago. Faith hoped that the other surviving camp hadn't been wiped out yet.

To make matters worse for the refugees, Gunnarr's wife, Hildar, had been recovering from a cold when they had moved to the cave and the damp surroundings had brought her illness back with a vengeance. To hear Ursula talk, Hildar was gonna kick the bucket any minute now. Faith assumed that the old woman was exaggerating, but when Val rejoined them her face was worried, and her shoulders tense.

Frowning, Faith took her to one side to quietly ask, "Hildar okay?"

Val's frown deepened, "I am doing all I can for her but there is only so much I can do. She is very sick," she whispered. "This cave is no good for her lungs."

"Yeah, well, we're working on it," Faith told her, glancing around. "Gotta plan."

"What is it?" asked Val, listening avidly.

"We're gonna move everyone to that deserted planet we just came from," Faith explained. "No-one'll ever think of looking for 'em there. You think Hildar'll make it?"

"She will die if she stays here much longer," Val said after a moment's consideration. "Do you really think they will go?"

"They already think Thor sent us," Faith quietly pointed out. "We just tell 'em he wants us to take 'em to a different planet, where they'll be safe."

Val frowned, "That seems dishonest to me." Looking around the cave, she lowered her voice further, "Their god did not send us."

"No... Val," Faith sighed wearily. "Thor... I'll explain later. Just make like he did and he wants us to rescue these guys for now, okay?"

"Okay...?" Val repeated dubiously. "Do you really think it wise?"

"Too late," Faith told her. "We already told Ursula and Mae."

"Maeva," Val corrected quietly.

"They're raring to go," Faith continued over the top of her. "Look," she sighed and levelled with the other slayer. "I don't like it either, but it's not like we've got much choice here. These guys are never gonna accept Origin. Adria's gonna wipe 'em out because they're convinced Thor is a God. Getting them off this planet is our best chance of saving them."

"I agree with you," Val told her. "But there are only six people here. Why do we have to lie to them?"

"Because we don't have time to convince them," Faith explained. "There's a chance that there's more survivors a day's walk from here. We gotta get to them, convince 'em to leave, and get 'em back to the 'Gate as quick as we can. Every minute we spend here increases the chances that the Ori'll find out we're here and the second they do we're gonna have a shit-load of soldiers and Priors breathing down our necks."

"How long do you think you will be?" Val asked with a worried frown. "The sooner Hildar leaves here the better."

"Two days, max," Faith told her. "That's worst case scenario. I'm hopin' to be able to catch the rings most of the way, shave off most of the walking."

"Rings?"

"Those metal rings we keep coming across," Faith explained absently, distracted as the young girl entered the room, the toddler resting on her hip, gnawing on the fist he had stuffed in his own mouth. "The Ori use 'em to travel long distance. Hopefully, we can do the same. I got Kay and Liss workin' on it now."

"And if you cannot?" Val asked anxiously.

"Then I better have a damn good plan B," Faith said frankly. "I'm guessing you wanna stay here?"

Val blinked at the sudden change of subject, "I... yes."

"Okay," Faith nodded. She'd figured as much. "Kay's staying behind to keep an eye on the 'Gate, so you won't be alone."

"That is good to know," Val said, nodding thoughtfully.

A commotion at the cave entrance drew their attention in time to see Kay and Liss enter, followed closely by the old woman, Ursula. Glancing quickly at Val, Faith made her way across the floor to meet them. Val drifted over with her.

"Any luck?" Faith asked.

"That depends on your definition of luck," Kay told her. "If you want to go to the Ori Mothership, we've got a quick way of getting there."

"The rings just aren't designed to transport sideways," Liss explained. "If I had a couple of days to study them further I might be able to do it..."

"We don't have that kind of time," Faith told her. "Okay... Plan B. Jem!"

Jem, eating a bowl of stew cross-legged on the floor, looked up at the sound of his name, "Huh?"

"You wanted to know what you could do to help," reminded Faith. "Gotta job for you."

"What?" Jem asked eagerly, leaving his food forgotten on the floor as he scrambled to his feet.

"I want you to go back to the last planet and bring back the horse," Faith informed him. "Liss'll give you the addresses you need to dial."

"What?" Mallie and Jem spoke at the same time, in very different tones. Mallie's voice was equal parts surprise and delight, while Jem's was completely horrified and had a plaintive, "Why me?" tacked on the end.

"Because, every time anyone other than me dials the 'Gate we get screwed," Faith explained. "So far we've ended up on an ice planet, underwater, and been captured twice."

"You forgot Duran," Mallie added helpfully.

"And we torched Duran," Faith added with a glare at Mallie. She shrugged, "Our track record kinda speaks for itself."

"And you want me to try?" Jem asked warily, his finely-honed sense of self-preservation blaring warning alarms.

"You're not a slayer," Faith pointed out. "Millions of normal people use the 'Gates without any problem every day. It's only when one of us is thrown into the mix that things get screwed up. You're our best shot."

"Actually," interceded Kay. "It's only when you go through the Chappa'ai that things go wrong," she corrected Faith. "I travelled to many worlds with no trouble before I met you."

"I used to go to the market on Chulak," Mallie reminisced.

"Fine! I'm the jinx!" Folding her arms, Faith glared at Jem, "You game?"

"I don't know how to catch a horse," Jem said feebly.

"I do!" Mallie piped up immediately, actually bouncing as she spoke. "I'll go with you."

Faced with Faith's glare and the temptation of spending some time alone with Mallie, even if that time involved a horse, versus the possibility of life-threatening danger, Jem took a deep breath, fully intending to tell them no.

"Alright," he found himself saying instead. "I'm game."

**l**

Oz checked the code he'd written on his tablet one more time before he ran it through the modified version of the tertiary emulator he had created, making sure there were no errors. There were none. It was perfect. Technically, he was supposed to be helping Colonel Carter to try to override the shop's control systems, but he'd had an... interesting idea. If it worked like it was supposed to. He was playing with a computer code he barely grasped, after all.

He ran the code through the emulator and then took a moment to fully consider what he was doing. Grinning, Oz uploaded the program he'd created into the ship's computer.

**l**

Faith's impatience to be underway was infectious, and everyone followed Mallie and Jem to the Stargate to wait for their return, even Val and Kay, who would be staying behind. The old woman, Ursula, led the way, much to Val's initial consternation. Her confusion turned to concern when Faith explained that Ursula had offered her services as a guide, leading her to point out the old woman's frailties and beg Faith to take Gunnarr instead.

Faith refused to consider it, telling Val that there was no way she was going to take Gunnarr from his family while his wife was so sick. If Hildar died, Gunnarr would be all his two children had. Having spent most of her childhood bringing herself up, there was no way Faith was gonna condemn two kids to do the same, although she didn't say so to Val. Besides, Ursula had volunteered. The old woman actually seemed excited by the prospect of a long horse ride. Different strokes...

No sooner had she settled that then Kay claimed her attention, trying to persuade her to leave another slayer behind. As she pointed out, splitting their forces evenly was a logical decision. Faith would've agreed with her, but she was keenly aware that she no idea what they were heading into. If her experiences in Sunnydale had taught her anything, it was that in a fight, one person could make the difference between victory and defeat. If necessary, two slayers could hold the cave until the others made it back. She compromised by agreeing to leave behind half of their weapons and Jem, something she'd already been planning to do. She wanted to travel light, and Jem would only slow them down. He'd be of more use here.

Of course, Jem objected to that plan. He wanted to go with them, not stay behind. He and Faith were still arguing about it when they reached the Stargate, with Mallie weighing in on Jem's side until both Kay and Nya took Faith's part. Jem was still sulking as he and Mallie stepped through the Stargate.

It shut off behind them and the tension among the small group ratcheted up dramatically as they stayed to see if the pair would return. Acutely aware that soon she'd been running and possibly fighting for her life, Faith conserved her energy by gnawing on her thumbnail as she waited helplessly, a habit she'd thought she'd managed to kick when she was a kid. Right now, she decided, she'd kill for a cigarette.

**l**

Cam was heading down a hallway, Teal'c by his side, when the two Jaffa he had zatted earlier rounded the corner, looking pissed. In a heartbeat, Cam brought his P-90 up to cover the Jaffa, who also brandished their weapons. A quick glance at Teal'c confirmed that Cam could always rely on him to have his six.

"Well, at least it ain't raining," the Colonel commented wryly.

"I have claimed this ship in the name of the Free Jaffa Nation," the leading Jaffa informed them. Cam recognised his voice. Bo'rel. "Surrender, or die!"

"This is getting a little old, don't you think?" he asked him.

"You will turn this ship back immediately," Bo'rel ordered.

"Love to," Cam told him. "Unfortunately, we're not the ones flying it."

"You lie!" Bo'rel exclaimed.

The back of Teal'c's throat rumbled and Cam glanced over at him as the legendary Jaffa lowered his weapon and stepped forward into Bo'rel's line of fire, his hands held out from his sides. Cam shifted his P-90 to cover Bo'rel's flunky instead as Teal'c spoke.

"Do you accuse me of lying as well?" Teal'c's voice held a definite note of warning. "We are unaware of who is in control of this vessel but suspect they may be onboard with us. We in fact share a common enemy."

"What have you done to my men?" Bo'rel demanded sullenly.

"They're fine," Cam told him. "Perfectly safe. You can even have 'em back if you promise to play nice. Because whatever's between us? We can finish that later," Cam informed him. "Right now we have to retake this ship."

After a moment, first Bo'rel and then the other Jaffa lowered their weapons, deactivating them. Bo'rel sighed. Cam wondered if he could get away with grinning and then decided against it.

"Take me to my men," Bo'rel dictated. "Then together we shall hunt down the intruder."

"That's more like it," Cam said with satisfaction. Slowly, so as not to spook Bo'rel, he reached up to his radio, activating it. "Hey guys," he spoke into the small plastic box. "Change of plan. Our friendly neighbourhood Jaffa are gonna give us a hand narrowing down the search."

**l**

Alone on a deserted planet, Jem watched Mallie with a mixture of admiration and trepidation as she approached the large horse. The beast tossed its head, dancing nervously back out of arm's reach despite the soothing clucking noises Mallie was making to it. Jem was staying a careful distance back from the nervous animal, which had been grazing quietly near the Stargate when it had been disturbed by the formation of a wormhole and their appearance through it. He'd lived his entire life in a city and consequently, Jem had a natural distrust of animals and nature in general. He could think of any number of things that he would prefer to do with Mallie on a deserted world, and none of them involved a horse. But Faith needed the horse, and she'd asked him to fetch it. He'd told her that he wanted to help and she'd found something he could do that she couldn't. Forgetting that he hadn't wanted to come, that he would have to stay behind when almost everyone else was heading off, Jem allowed pride to swell his thin chest.

Back home, in the alleyways of Kelowna, he'd hero-worshipped Jonas Quinn ever since the other man had saved his life in the early hours of the Ori invasion, following him loyally through the formation of the Langaran Resistance right up until the battle for the Stargate in the Lithair Tower, when Adria had thrown Jonas through the Stargate. While Jem refused to believe that Jonas was dead, his adulation had begun to find a new target. He knew the high opinion Jonas had of both the Tau'ri and Kayliss, and even though he and Kayliss hadn't always seen eye to eye he'd respected her hok'taur abilities as only a thief who'd brought himself up could. Faith was both hok'taur and Tau'ri. Jonas had been willing to sacrifice everything he had been working towards to see that Faith got back to the front lines of the battle against the Ori and Jem could understand why. Faith and the others who followed her had done more damage to the Ori forces in Kelowna than the Langaran Resistance could ever have done. He'd heard enough conversations to know that as much as she wanted to return to her homeworld, Faith also wanted to kill Adria, and every one of her Priors. Jem just hoped that if he made himself useful in the meantime, she'd let him watch. He was convinced that Faith would win. She had to; she had mystical Powers guiding her!

Finally succeeding in catching the horse, Mallie slipped his bridle in place, turning to beam at Jem with satisfaction, her blue eyes sparkling brightly. Her grin transformed her young face from pretty to beautiful and Jem's breath caught in his throat, rooting him to the spot as she approached, leading the horse behind her.

"Got him then," he said awkwardly as she reached him.

"He just wanted some attention," Mallie explained indulgently. Looking fondly up at the large beast, she reached up to scratch his neck, crooning, "Didn't you, Flash?"

"Right," Jem exclaimed and the horse snorted, its head rearing up. Jem stumbled back a pace, "Er... You hold it and I'll... dial the Stargate."

"Are you scared of Flash?" Mallie asked incredulously, unable to help smiling at the thought of anyone being scared of a horse.

"No!" Jem denied hotly and immediately. "It's just... Faith wanted me to dial."

"Faith does not care which of us dials, as long as we make it back," Mallie informed him, admiring the way that his new breeches hugged his buttocks as he walked ahead of her to the 'Gate. "And Flash would not hurt you... Would you, Flash?"

The horse snorted and Jem looked back over his shoulder in time to see the animal toss his head from side to side. Mallie laughed up at it, reaching up to scratch it again. Jem had to admit, it seemed well-trained. For a horse.

"Why Flash?" he asked curiously.

"Because he has a flash on his forehead," Mallie explained, rubbing the large white spot between the horse's eyes with her knuckles. "And looking at his points, I would say he's fast too."

"His points?" Jem said dubiously.

"His bones, his muscles, his chest..." Mallie said airily, waving her hand as Jem pushed the buttons that would take them back to Faith and the others. "That kinda thing."

"You can tell just by looking at him that he's quick?" Jem asked dubiously, pushing the last button.

"Yup!" Mallie grinned at him.

Jem was unable to resist grinning back at her. Time seemed to stand still. The breeze died down and the air hung heavily over the two staring deep into each other's eyes. Jem leant in towards Mallie... And the moment was shattered when the Stargate erupted into life. Terrified, Flash tore free from Mallie loose grasp and bolted, leaving the humans staring after him.

Peeking at Jem, Mallie blushed as her eyes met his, quickly looking away. He cleared his throat and she glanced at him to see that he was staring after Flash again, and that the tips of his ears were redder than his shaggy hair. His head turned towards her and she dragged her eyes away from him, towards the horse...

"We'd better go get him back," he said, starting down the stairs.

Mallie followed him, appreciating his new breeches once again, "I told you he was fast."

"You weren't wrong," sighed Jem, trudging towards the animal revelling in its newfound freedom.

**l**

Teal'c stood in the doorway of the room Colonel Mitchell had led them to, watching as the Colonel helped Bo'rel to free his trussed men. The Jaffa leader had informed his men of the change in plan and they offered no resistance to Colonel Mitchell's presence. Nevertheless, Teal'c remained in the doorway, keeping watch.

He wondered if Colonel Mitchell was aware of the significance of this room when he chose it to incarcerate the Jaffa warriors. Unlikely, as he had also seen fit to bind their hands and feet. Had he known the purpose of the room, he would have known also that they could not escape it.

The last of the Jaffa stood, rubbing his wrists and glaring at Colonel Mitchell, and Teal'c stood to one side, allowing Bo'rel to lead his men from the room. But when Colonel Mitchell went to follow them, Teal'c resumed his position in the middle of the doorway, blocking the only exit.

As the Colonel frowned up at him in puzzlement, Teal'c spoke, "Colonel Mitchell, are you aware of this room's purpose?"

Looking around, Colonel Mitchell shrugged, "It's a bedroom?"

"I believe, and Andrew Wells agrees with me, that this room is intended to hold a slayer against her will," Teal'c informed him. "The furniture is bonded to the walls and floor and there are no door controls within."

Turning, Cam looked at his surroundings with fresh eyes, noticing details that he hadn't before. Like the fact that there were no sharp edges on the furniture, nothing that could be remotely considered breakable... and Teal'c was right about the lack of door controls.

The deck lurched beneath Cam's feet as the mothership exited hyperspace, decelerating rapidly. His time in service on Earth's own spaceships and battle-hones reflexes kept him upright and steady as the mothership approached a planet hanging in orbit before them.

"Is that what I think it is?" Cam asked the rhetorical question, already knowing the answer.

"Dakara," Teal'c grimly confirmed.

"Great," Cam scowled as Teal'c stared out of the window, a muscle deep in his jaw twitching. "You don't think whoever's flying this boat is on a friendly trip, do you?" Teal'c's eyes flicked towards him and then away, while the muscle in his jaw twitched faster. "No, me neither," sighed Cam, reaching into his front vest pocket.

"We must not allow this ship to launch an attack," Teal'c said urgently, stepping forward, out of the doorway. Behind him, unnoticed, the door slid shut.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Cam told him, holding up the detonator he held in his hand. "Luckily O'Neil and I found the engine room and planted a load of C-4 there."

"With the engines activated, there may be a significantly greater reaction to the C-4," Teal'c mused, wondering just how much explosives had been placed there as the Colonel armed the small device. He felt it incumbent on himself to warn Colonel Mitchell, "The ship may well be destroyed."

Cam lifted the trigger guard with his thumb. "Right," he said, putting his thumb on the switch. He closed his eyes...

"Colonel Mitchell?" Teal'c asked after a moment.

"I was just trying to think of some appropriate last words," Cam told him. Teal'c rumbled but said nothing. Nope, thought Cam. Still nothing.

He threw the switch, flinching in anticipation.

Nothing happened.

Unscrewing his eyes, Cam stared at the device in his hand with confusion. He transferred his gaze to Teal'c, asking, "What happened?"

"Nothing," Teal'c informed him succinctly.

"Yeah, I know," Cam told him, running through the arming procedure again. He flipped the switch again and still nothing happened. "Why not!"

**l**

"You should thank me," Adria informed her mother and Daniel Jackson as she opened her eyes and turned to face them. "I just saved your lives."

"What are you talking about?" Vala asked her quietly, confused.

Two very familiar people appeared in the doorway, the guns in their hands pointed at her daughter. Adria gestured and the two men were separated from their weapons, flying back to hit the other side of the hallway wall as the doors of the room slid shut.

"Jon!" Daniel shouted involuntarily, concerned for him.

"Patience, Deama," Adria counselled the tense girl as she started towards the door, stopping her in her tracks.

**l**

"Where are they?" Faith fretted, glaring at the Stargate as she paced back and forth in the small clearing. "They should be back by now....How long has it been?"

Her question was directed at Liss, the only person there with a watch. It was times like this that Faith really missed hers, but it had been trashed during their watery arrival on the world with the nightlight made up of the elements. It had been a Christmas present from Robin. Shame he hadn't shelled out for a waterproof one.

"Almost twenty minutes," Liss told her, looking just as worried as Faith felt.

In fact the only person there who didn't seem in the least concerned that the Stargate had been active for over twenty minutes with no sign of Jem or Mallie was Ursula, who was sitting on a large rock as she picked bits of food out from between her few remaining teeth with a long fingernail and ate them again. Liss and Val were fidgeting while Nya nibbled at her upper lip, having already chewed her bottom lip to red-rawness, and Kay gnawed on her thumbnail. If an Ori patrol had come across them then, it's highly unlikely that any of them would have noticed before the first shots were fired, so perhaps it's just as well that none did.

Imagining the worst, Faith blamed herself, "I knew I shouldn't have sent them."

"You didn't have a choice," Kay exonerated her. "Unless you want to walk there, and that'll take days."

"Does it matter if we take a little longer to get there?" Faith replied rhetorically.

Nya answered her anyway with a one-word reminder, "Whistler."

Wincing, Faith acknowledged her point.

"Who is Whistler?" Val asked curiously, watching the byplay with fascination.

"Long story," Faith told her, her eyes fixed on the rippling wormhole.

"He works for The Powers That Be," Nya explained.

"Or not," Faith commented wryly with a grimace.

"He's their messenger," Kay added. "Apparently we're running behind schedule."

"We're on a schedule?" Liss demanded incredulously.

"The apocalypse is always scheduled," Faith told her seriously. "It's like a good rave... the trick is finding out where and when."

"Do you know those things?" asked Val, frowning as she wondered what Faith meant by a rave.

"Fuck, no!" said Faith, adding bitterly, "Whistler didn't bother to mention it. Just passed on some vague warnings and left. Typical PtB."

"The Gods do not help those who will not help themselves," Ursula said into the short silence that fell after Faith's words.

Faith stared at her, "What?" That sounded vaguely like something she remember Cam's grandma saying back when they'd been mind-melded.

"Thor helps those who help themselves," Ursula repeated for her.

"That's what I thought you said," Faith told her, mentally processing the fact that the Asgard were ripping off the bible. A millennia-old civilisation and they couldn't come up with something more original of their own. Still, she supposed that the old ones were the best for a reason. Like Star Wars.

"Okay!" she decided, done processing. "We're going after them."

"We can't go anywhere until the wormhole shuts down," Liss reminded her as she headed towards the Stargate. She glanced at her watch, "Which won't be for another quarter of an hour."

"I hate waiting," Faith growled, breaking off to resume pacing.

"We noticed," Kay told her, switching thumbnails.

The light reflecting off the open wormhole rippled oddly and Mallie and Jem walked out of it, leading a familiar horse behind them. Faith ignored the fact that Jem was holding the reins, focussing on the pair's grass-stained clothing and rumpled appearance.

"What happened?" she demanded, striding towards them.

"Oh, um... Flash spooked when the Chappa'ai connected and bolted," Mallie excused weakly.

"We had to catch him again," Jem added with more bravado. Faith sceptically eyed his new shirt, now ripped at the shoulder.

Mallie rushed to explain, "Jem fell down."

"Right..." Faith said, not believing a word of it. Mallie was just as grass-stained as he was. "An' I guess you fell over him."

"Yes!" Mallie seized on the excuse with relief.

"Okay, lovebirds, say your goodbyes and give Ursula a hand up," instructed Faith, turning away. "You'll see each other in a couple of days."

Approaching Kay, she added quietly, "If we're not back by then..."

"We'll go back to Camelot and wait for the SGC to make contact," Kay repeated obediently, not bothering to mention that she had no intention of following Faith's instructions. She'd see Gunnarr and his family to the safety of the deserted world and then she'd bring Val back and find Faith.

"Remember, don't die," Faith said in farewell.

"You too," Kay told her.

"Ursula, you ready?" Faith asked, turning around. "Then let's go!"

**l**

"SG-1, this is Odyssey. Do you read?"

Work in the control room ceased as the message crackled out of Sam's radio, bringing both her and Oz's heads up from their laptops.

They exchanged glances as she replied, "Odyssey, this is Colonel Carter."

"We're going to try and beam you out of there," Colonel Emerson told her.

"It won't work," Sam warned him. "The shield is still active. I'm trying to shut it down. Please stand ready." Looking over at Oz, she asked, "Anything?"

Oz shook his head, wishing he hadn't taken the time off to create his program now. Colonel Carter bent her head over her computer tablet, her fingers dancing across the screen, and Oz followed her example. But it was his radio's turn to crackle into life.

"Hey, we found out who's controlling the ship," Jon announced.

"Who?" Mitchell demanded.

"Adria," Jon told him. He didn't wait to let the bad news sink in, piling more on top of it instead, "She's got Daniel, Vala and the Doc locked in a room on the seventh level."

"Pull the plug," Oz said suddenly, and not into his radio.

Sam looked up at him, frowning. "What?"

"Whatever you did before," Oz told her urgently. "Do it again."

**l**

"It won't be that easy," Daniel said to Adria.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Adria asked him. "I'm about to destroy the only real threat against us." She didn't consider Faith and her followers to be a serious threat. They were her Clava, and they would worship her. It was foretold. Deama was proof that it would be so.

"You're forgetting about someone," Daniel said and Adria frowned. "What about the Ancients?"

"You know as well as I do that they'll never get involved," Adria told him, smiling. Still, his faith in them was almost touching. At least, it would be if his allegiance wasn't to her enemy. "We have free reign in this galaxy."

"Adria, listen to me," Vala said urgently, stepping forward. "I promise to stay with you," she said recklessly, trying her hardest to save her friends. "I'll hear you out on the whole Origin thing. I'll even try to keep an open mind. Just let everyone else go."

Shots from a staff weapon impacted against the locked door, swiftly followed by others. Adria turned her head to look.

"It's too late for them," she absently told her mother. "But don't worry," she reassured her, turning to look at Daniel Jackson. "I'll be keeping him alive as well. We have plans for you," she informed him.

**l**

"If I do that again, the power'll go off everywhere," Sam explained to Oz why his plan wouldn't work. "Including the airlocks."

"Good news," Jon's voice interrupted their conversation. "The cavalry just showed up. The rate Bo'rel and his guys are firing, we'll be through the door in no time."

"We don't need long," Oz reminded her. "Then the oxygen-issue won't be one."

Sam's eyes widened as the logic of his argument hit home. The fingers of one hand danced over her tablet as she reached for her radio with the other, "Odyssey, on my signal."

"Speaking of doors..." Mitchell began. The lights went out.

"Now!" Sam spoke and the gloomy bridge disappeared, replaced by the bright control room of the Odyssey. Oz squinted against the lights as he stood, grateful that he'd hung on to his computer and backpack.

"Never mind," said Mitchell.

"Get us out of here," Emerson ordered.

"Yes, sir," Marks confirmed, already manoeuvring the ship. In seconds, they'd made the jump to hyperspace.

"We shall never speak of this again," Colonel Mitchell said to Teal'c.

"Agreed," Teal'c hastily replied.

"Doc!" Jon exclaimed, catching sight of the unconscious redhead.

Rushing to her side, he knelt beside her as Colonel Emerson ordered a medical team to the bridge. She was breathing and her colour was good, so she wasn't dead. He couldn't see any obvious injuries and glared accusingly up at Daniel.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"Deama," Vala told him before Daniel had a chance to reply. "She knocked her out."

"Who's Deama?" Andrew asked curiously as Jon frowned. Neither of them had seen Deama, who had deliberately placed herself where she could not be seen from the door.

"Adria's Clava," Daniel informed him.

"Great," groaned Cam. "Just what we need."

"What the hell's a Clava?" Jon wanted to know.

"I'm not entirely sure," Daniel told him and Jon's glare intensified. "But I think it's a slayer who's converted to Origin."

There was a stunned silence as the conscious members of SG-13 (who'd missed the morning prostration on just that topic) digested this new information. Meanwhile, the Odyssey's command crew found themselves wondering what a slayer was.

"That sucks," Oz said finally, summing up the situation succinctly.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

**l**

It wasn't long after Faith left that the first Ori patrol showed up. Watching from her vantage point, concealed in the branches of a tree on the edge of the small Stargate clearing, Kay waited until all four men had carelessly trampled their way into her sights before she fired. They were dead before they had the chance to work out where she was, or even report that they were under fire.

Dropping to the ground, Kay cautiously approached them, all her senses on the alert for any sign that there might be more patrols in the area. But there was nothing out of place as she collected their weapons before disposing of the bodies with her zat'nik'tel. Heading back to her tree, behind and to one side of the Chappa'ai, she easily climbed back into her eyrie, settling in to wait for the next patrol.

They took a while to show up and Kay passed the time by running a mental inventory of their supplies, starting with those they had at the cave and continuing with the stuff they'd left behind on the other planet. They'd left some useful items behind, enough to make her glad that they were going back and had the chance to retrieve them. At least, she was assuming that they were going back. Surely Faith wasn't planning on sending the Cimmerians through the Chappa'ai on their own?

A movement at the edge of the clearing caught her eye and she focussed on the task at hand. Defending the Chappa'ai from the four soldiers creeping into the clearing. Taking careful aim, Kay hesitated when she heard a twig snap in a completely different direction. Keeping her zat'nik'tel trained on the Ori soldiers heading for the Chappa'ai, Kay turned her head in the direction of the noise, searching for the cause. A movement caught her eye and she frowned as she squinted through the leafy foliage. There! Another patrol was flanking the clearing, covering the first. They weren't taking any chances this time.

Kay grinned as she spotted a weakness in their plan. Although the second patrol were keeping the first in their line of sight, the original four soldiers didn't know where the others were. Their attempt at covert glances into the treeline was laughable. Or, it would be if she dared make a sound.

Tucking her zat'nik'tel into the bag of weapons she wore over her shoulder, Kay reached up and took hold of the branch over her head, easily pulling herself to her feet. Turning around, she hopped from branch to branch until she was within reaching distance of a branch from another tree. Calculating a route that would lead her on a course to intercept the second patrol, she moved through the forest in the branches of the trees, leaping the distance when they grew too far apart.

Arriving at the spot she'd chosen ahead of the soldiers, she pulled out her knife, waiting patiently as they approached, heading straight into her trap. They walked directly beneath her, and as they did, Kay dropped from the tree, knife in hand.

They died quickly, and soundlessly, and Kay was able to turn her attention to the first patrol. Wiping her knife clean on the forest floor, she traded it for her zat'nik'tel, heading back to the edge of clearing in search of a clear shot at the soldiers clustered around the DHD.

She had to circle around the clearing before she got it, and the soldiers had a panel off the side of the DHD by the time she got there. Worse, the one peering inside was clearly talking to their ship and he managed to get out a wordless cry of warning before he died.

Knowing that she only had minutes before her position was overrun, Kay worked quickly, getting rid of the bodies without taking the time to strip them of their weapons. She had more than enough already. She replaced the DHD panel before she climbed back up into her tree, aware that this was probably the last time she could get away with using it.

Minutes passed. More came and went. Bored, Kay began to compile a list of everything she missed about her life before she met Faith. Like her bed. She hadn't realised how much she loved her warm, soft bed with its crisp clean sheets until it was gone.

A whining sound distracted her and she looked up at the sky as it increased. A small alien ship flew overhead, dropping a ring platform into the clearing with chilling precision. Instantly, the rings shot up, a group of soldiers bunched tightly together materialising inside even as the obelisk in front of the Chappa'ai hummed and shot a beam of light out. Kay opened fire immediately, but the soldiers scattered in all directions as soon as the rings dropped down and some made it into the trees as the obelisk continued to scan the rings.

Swearing, Kay dropped to the ground, instantly on the move. Several shots from Ori weapons flew towards her tree and she marked their directions in her mind. There was a bright flash from the clearing and she glanced behind her to see that the ring platform had disappeared and the obelisk was powering down.

Interesting... Had the obelisk really just destroyed the ring platform? Kay wondered why it would do that and leave the Ori intact as she hunted down the surviving soldiers. Unless... Ursula had mentioned something about Thor's hammer protecting them against Ettins... The obelisk _was _hammer-shaped, and if the Ettins were the Goa'uld then it would make sense that it would react against technology that the Goa'uld also used, and not against the Ori people specifically.

This time she didn't have time to get rid of the bodies before another two patrols made their appearance, followed rapidly by several more. Kay held her position for as long as she could, almost another hour, but when the Ori ship returned with another ring platform to drop a Prior and his guards directly into the clearing, she had to fall back.

Rather than lead them back to the cave, she struck out in a southern direction, deliberately crashing through bushes and making as much noise as possible to draw them away. She left a few bodies on the way too, before she doubled back, silent now as she circled around the searching patrols.

She was almost back at the cave when she heard the sound of boots crunching against the loose pebbles underfoot. Just one person, headed directly towards her. Grabbing her knife, she ducked behind a nearby boulder, clutching her zat'nik'tel in her other hand as she lined up her arm to throw...

A familiar figure trudged around the corner and Kay sighed as she relaxed, moving out from behind the boulder. Jem jumped as she came into view and brought his own zat'nik'tel up before he recognised her and pulled his arm away.

"What's happened?" Kay anxiously asked.

"Nothing," Jem scowled. "I'm bored. What're you doing?"

Behind her, Kay caught the sound of people approaching. Grabbing Jem, she pulled him into the undergrowth and behind a large bush. They crouched side by side, peering through the branches as four Ori soldiers tramped past, heading up the path towards the cave. Jem drew his knife, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl as he rose slightly, moving to follow them.

"No!" Kay whispered, pulling him down. "Not this close to the cave."

"What's going on?" Jem whispered back.

"There's a Prior at the Chappa'ai," Kay told him, listening carefully as she followed the soldiers progress. "The woods are crawling with soldiers. We can't risk drawing attention to the cave."

"What do we do?" Jem asked quietly.

"Get back to the cave," Kay instructed in a low voice. "Let them know what's going on."

"What are you going to do?" Jem asked her.

"Create a distraction," Kay told him with a grin. "Give me two minutes before you move."

"Alright," Jem agreed uneasily. "Kay!" he stopped her as she went to move off. "The chap-pie's the Stargate, right?"

**l**

It was times like this that she loved being a slayer. The feel of the wind whipping through her hair, the aching burn in her lungs and the powerful strides of her legs beneath her, all combining to lull her mind into a calmer, almost meditative state. The itching need to be moving, to be _doing_, obliterated in the freedom of physical action. Even the nagging feeling that she was running out of time had faded away. Faith felt like she could run forever.

To her surprise, the horse hadn't slowed them down that much, and limiting themselves to his speed helped the slayers to pace themselves. Occasionally they'd come across an Ori patrol and have to slow their speed to edge around them, giving everyone a breather from their head-long gallop. So far, they'd avoided being spotted. Faith had her fingers crossed that it would stay that way. Although sneaking around wasn't her style the planet was crawling with Ori forces, way more than she and her girls could handle. It had taken time, but Faith had learned her limits the hard way. For now, she'd settle for getting the survivors off this planet, and hope that she found a slayer at the next hideout.

**l**

Adria!

Clawing herself awake, Jool sat bolt upright. Her head swam sickeningly as the room tilted drastically and she sank back on the pillows with a nauseous groan.

"Easy, Doc," soothed the Captain, and Jool made the effort to focus on him. "You're onboard the Odyssey, in the infirmary."

"Vala?" Jool asked anxiously. "Daniel?"

"Everyone's fine," he reassured her. "Everyone but you that is."

"I'm okay," Jool insisted, pushing herself further up the pillows and ignoring the dizziness that ensued. "What happened?"

"A rogue slayer fractured your skull, that's what happened," Jon told her impatiently.

"The black-haired girl..." Jool remembered.

"Deama," Jon supplied helpfully.

"She hits like a sledgehammer," Jool reminisced ruefully.

"Yeah, well it looks like that sledgehammer's working with Adria," he informed her.

"Hey," Jool said woozily, her mind going off on a tangent. "How did we get off the ship?"

"The Odyssey showed up and beamed us off," Jon explained.

"That was lucky," commented Jool. She realised something, "You have green in your eyes."

"They're hazel," Jon told her, frowning. "You okay, Doc?"

"I'm okay..." she said quickly. "How long was I out? I should ask that shouldn't I?"

"About nine hours, give or take," said Jon. "We've been onboard the Odyssey for four of those."

"Are we going to Langara now?" she asked him, resting her head back against the pillow.

"Uh... no," Jon said, not liking the vague look in her eyes and wondering if he should call a nurse over. "Back to Earth. The SGC sent us a subspace message. Jonas is awake and General Landry's ordered us back. Emerson's going to drop us off at a planet with a Stargate and continue on to Earth with you."

"Why can't I go with you?" she asked drowsily, frowning as she slid further down the bed so that her head was better supported by the pillow. "I'm his doctor..."

"You have a skull fracture, Doc," Jon gently reminded her.

"Psshaw," the Doc scoffed lethargically, waving one hand in his general direction. "I'll be over it by the time we get there." She yawned, "Probably... won't, even remember, thinking that I fancy the pants off you right now," she sighed. "Which is good 'cause I really shouldn't." She blinked, and frowned, looking confused, "Except... I just told you and I shouldn't do that either. Shhh..." she looked solemnly up at him. "It's a secret."

"You... fancy..." Jon repeated slowly. His lips twitched upwards.

"The pants off you," she repeated on another sigh. "It's true... Which just goes to show..." she mumbled as her eyes drifted shut, continuing sleepily, "I must be really perverse."

Jon winced, staring down at the sleeping woman as he stood by her bed. He knew what she meant. Any way you looked at it, one of them was a cradle-snatcher. Hell, if you measured his age in terms of actual existence, it made her a pedophile! That alone was the reason why a relationship between them would never work. The fact that he was her commanding officer, although a problem, wasn't as insurmountable in their case as it was for Carter and Jack. Jool was a civilian and therefore not subject to the regulations that had scuppered any chance of a relationship between him and Carter. It wasn't that holding him back this time. It was his age. All three of them, mental, biological and chronological; and the fact that he had so many to take into account. He was either too old, too young or _way _too young for her, and she deserved better than the clone of a man who was old enough to be her Grandfather. Still he couldn't resist smoothing her springy hair back from her face before he went to go fetch the ship's doctor.

**l**

The sun was hanging low in the direction Faith had mentally termed west, gilding the countryside with its amber rays and turning the cliffs in front of them golden as Ursula reined Flash into a fast trot. The sturdy horse was blowing hard now, his bay coat dark with sweat. The slayers surrounding him were just as sweat-stained and as grateful for the chance to slow down and catch their breath, instantly adjusting their pace to his. They hadn't seen an Ori patrol for several hours now, and had been pushing hard.

"How much further?" panted Mallie, running next to the horse.

"Almost there," rasped Ursula, reaching for her waterbottle.

"You said that half an hour ago," Liss pointed out.

"Halt!" the male voice rung out authoritatively and the slayers reacted instantly, reaching for their weapons as they stopped while Ursula reined in. "Identify yourselves!"

"That you, Alfred?" Ursula replied, peering up into the branches. Faith followed her gaze to see a middle-aged man sitting in the tree, a longbow aimed in their direction. "You're as ignorant as the day I helped your mother birth you if you can't recognise me, boy."

"Ursula," the man said, lowering his bow. "I thought..."

"That a pack of women might turn out to be Ori soldiers?" Ursula finished scathingly. "Get down from there and lead us in. We come in Thor's name."

**l**

When Jon stuck his head around the infirmary door half an hour later, the Doc was looking much more like herself, sitting up in bed as she bossed the Odyssey's medical personnel around. Poor Doc Parnell, the ship's senior medical officer, had a bemused expression on his face as he watched her from a discreet distance. Jon sympathised with him. After all, it couldn't be every day that a recently-admitted patient with severe head trauma suddenly woke up and took charge of his infirmary. The Doc's slayer abilities and their supernatural origin were classified up the wazoo, and the wide-spread rumours that surrounded her back at the SGC hadn't had a chance to make it up to the Odyssey yet. Parnell had no idea what he was dealing with. Jon had made the difficult decision earlier not to inform him about the Doc's accelerated healing rate, on Andrew's recommendation. The young watcher believed the severity of the Doc's head injury warranted bed rest for the extra day it would take the Odyssey to reach Earth. If Parnell knew how quickly she healed it would be easier for the Doc to convince him to release her early. Of course, if she kept improving at this rate, he was going to find out anyway.

Grinning, Jon ambled towards the bridge, his hands stuffed in his pockets. They weren't due to arrive at the planet for a while yet. Plenty of time left to confuse Emerson with his presence again. The Colonel was clearly desperate to know how a teenager had not only made Captain but had also been given command of the formerly defunct SG-13, now made up of civilians almost as young as their Captain appeared. Emerson knew better than to ask however, which only made the look of bemused puzzlement lurking in the back of his eyes whenever he caught sight of Jon all the more amusing. Jon knew he shouldn't torment him, but in space you had to make your own entertainment. Especially when The Simpsons wasn't available.

**l**

Alfred led them towards a small outcropping of the cliff, taking a circuitous route. By the time they finally reached the cliff the light was fading fast and if it hadn't been for her enhanced sense of sight, Faith would have easily mistaken the small opening in the cliff as just another shadow. But her eyes picked out depths to the shadow that normal eyes would miss as Ursula awkwardly dismounted. The old woman staggered and would have fallen if Nya hadn't reached her, propping her up and helping her to step forward as Alfred led them into the dark cave with Mallie leading Flash at the rear of the group.

They were challenged within the first few metres. Alfred vouched for them and they were able to continue on through several narrow twists and turns that made Faith grateful she wasn't the one leading the horse, until they reached a small dimly lit cavern with several tunnels leading off from it and the two men waiting there. They stared openly at the small party as Alfred was handed a flaming torch to guide them deeper into the cave system and Mallie was gruffly told to leave Flash there, reluctantly complying after a glance at Faith.

Faith was starting to get a bad feeling about this. While she was sure that she could find her way back to the exit, she would have preferred to have a backup available, in case things went FUBAR and they had to make a sudden getaway. Now they were being forced to leave Flash behind, which, if they took Ursula with them when they left, meant that the slayers would be forced to travel at the old woman's speed. With every step she took away from the entrance to the cave system, her stomach dropped a little further.

Alfred led them into one of the tunnels and Faith looked back over her shoulder to see Flash being led down a separate one. Looking back, she was careful to keep the torch Alfred was holding out of her direct line of sight. The flickering flame would only hurt her sensitive eyes. Truth was, she could see better without it. They travelled in silence, heading down a slight incline and round several bends before Faith's ears caught the distant murmur in the background. Rising and falling, it almost sounded like water, but she instantly recognised it for what it was. People. Lots of 'em, all talking together.

Her spirits rose. It sounded like there were a lot more survivors here. Maybe these people had a shot at rebuilding their civilisation after all. And, maybe, she'd find a slayer here.

In the end, although there weren't as many as Faith had hoped, there were still a sizable number of people living in the large, high-roofed cavern they found at the end of the tunnel. Huddled in small groups around fire, their conversation faltered as Alfred led them into their midst and then picked up, buzzing with excitement and curiosity. People began to get up, to move closer and Faith glanced around uneasily.

A large crowd was gathering around the newcomers and their path back to the tunnel was blocked behind them. Although the native's faces were friendly and curious, many of them carried weapons and Faith got the feeling that their mood could turn ugly in a heartbeat. There was an undercurrent of tension running through the inhabitants of the cave system, and it spread to the slayers. They clustered closer, putting Ursula in the middle of them with their backs facing her and each other as they stared watchfully at the people surrounding them.

"What's going on?" a male voice demanded as the crowd stirred and a man pushed himself to the front. Blonde and broad-shouldered, he looked to be in his late twenties, but the crowd ceded control of the situation to him as he faced the newcomers.

"Ursula," he greeted the old woman with a mixture of surprise, fear and delight. "What brings you here?"

"Brock," Ursula replied, nodding her head to him. She looked around the crowd, smiling slightly, the first smile Faith had seen on her lined face, "Where's your father?"

Brock's welcoming smile faded away as pain flashed in the back of his eyes and Ursula's smile faltered and fell. "When?" she asked simply.

"Three days ago," Brock told her. "He was leading a raid against the Ori settlement up the mountain."

"He died with honour," Ursula observed, nodding her grizzled head solemnly.

Faith's attention had been caught by something else and she broke in on their conversation to demand, "What settlement?"

As Brock frowned at her, Ursula hurried to make the introductions, naming each of the slayer's present by name and introducing Faith last. "She is their leader," she added unnecessarily.

"Your clothing is strange and unusual," Brock told Faith. "Where in Cimmeria do you hail from?"

"Not from Cimmeria," Faith informed him succinctly. "None of us are. I'm from a place you call Midgard."

"Truly?" Brock's eyebrows climbed his forehead in surprise.

"Truly," Ursula confirmed. "Thor has sent them to aid us."

And with that pronouncement, any control that Brock had over the crowd vanished as they pressed excitedly forward, buzzing with eager questions. The volume got louder and louder as the slayers were jostled, each facing a barrage of queries. Herded further and further back, they glanced at each of them, catching Mallie and Liss' eyes. She noticed that Nya wasn't dealing well with the crowd, fingering the hilt of her sword nervously as they were pressed back.

"Enough!" Brock's voice roared out above the crowd and the questions ceased, trailing off into an uncomfortable silence as everyone turned to look at the large man. "Return to your hearths," he continued in a much more reasonable tone. "Hearth-leaders, I shall meet with you in one hour."

Slowly, and with much muttering, the crowd began to disperse. Lingerers found themselves on the receiving end of a stern look from their leader as he beckoned Faith and the others forward. They went with him.

Brock took them away from the crowd, to a small alcove in the cavern wall some distance from the fires, lighting the two torches kept there and inviting them to sit. The only seats available were on the floor but that didn't bother Faith and she quickly settled down on the floor with a sigh of relief. After several hours of non-stop running it felt good to be off her feet. The other slayers followed her example and Brock found a low chair for Ursula before he joined them on the ground. The flickering flames of the torches cast shadows over all of their faces.

"Now tell me," he said when they were all settled. "What does Thor wish us to do?"

Ursula glanced at Faith, as did everyone else. Faith hesitated for a moment, seeking the right words. Brock waited patiently.

"There's this other planet," she said eventually. "It's been abandoned. No-one would look for you there."

"Thor wishes us to abandon Cimmeria?" Brock interrupted her to ask incredulously. "Our sanctuary for centuries. To leave without a fight?"

"Thor wants you to live," Faith countered. "Fighting's just getting you killed."

"Cimmeria is our world, our home," Brock told her. "It is all we know. There is no honour in running away."

"I hear you," said Faith, understanding his point of view. She preferred the hands-on approach herself. "But we've got a saying on my world, 'he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day'. There'll be other battles."

"Why does Thor not tell us himself?" demanded Brock. "Why send women in his place?"

"Well, he's busy," Faith said weakly. "He's got his own battles to fight."

"Ragnorak?" Brock asked anxiously.

"Uhh..." said Faith, thinking fast. Wasn't Ragnorak the end of the world? "No."

"These are no ordinary women, Brock," Ursula spoke up for the first time. "They are battle-maidens." Brock looked startled, and his quick glance at Faith was laden with respect. Faith frowned as Ursula continued, "Faster than a horse, quieter than a mouse, and more deadly than a man."

"All of them?" asked Brock. "Are you certain?"

"Certain?" Ursula cackled dryly, "Did they not keep pace with my horse all afternoon? Did they not detect the Ori long before I could, and lead us safely round them? Have they not avenged Olaf's death? Certain, he asks... Pah!" the old woman spat on the ground. "Do you believe me so addled that I can't see what's in front of me? So old that I am incapable? Are you blind that you cannot see further than your nose to what lies before it? These women are our saviours, come to lead us to Valhalla!"

"Uh..." objected Faith. What the hell was Valhalla?

"And do you welcome them with open arms?" Ursula continued to scold Brock, ignoring the interruption. "No, you greet them with suspicion and doubt. How long do you think you can survive alone against the Ori? Thor is not coming to your aid, but he has sent his chosen to deliver us. You would be well served if they left you here to moulder. Stay if you wish, but I shall be leaving with them."

"But-But Thor has never called more than one battle-maiden at a time," said Brock, clearly knocked off-balance by Ursula's fierce argument.

"Yeah, it used to be that way back home," Faith told him, glad to be back on more familiar ground. These guys' battle-maidens sounded a lot like slayers. "Now there's hundreds of us running around, all getting in each other's way. But Mallie, Nya an' Liss, they were the only ones on their planets." She was struck by a sudden thought, "Least, I hope they were."

"I was the only freakishly strong girl I knew," Mallie rushed to reassure Faith.

"As was I," Nya confirmed tranquilly.

"Cool," said Faith. "Last thing we need is to be leaving people behind. Speakin' of which," she abruptly turned her attention back to Brock. "There any battle-maidens in your people? She'dve been called a couple of years ago."

"You believe that a battle-maiden has been called on Cimmeria?" asked Brock. "Such a thing has not happened in centuries. It would be wondrous indeed! Any girl so fortunate to be chosen would be well known to me, to all of Cimmeria."

"So, that's a no?" said Faith as Ursula nodded her agreement with the large man. "Damn!"

She'd been convinced that she'd find another slayer here. The news that even though the Cimmerians were familiar with the concept, no-one had heard of a slayer being called in centuries was a bitter blow, and came at the end of a very long day. Faith wasn't even sure how long she'd been up now, and although Liss could no doubt tell her, she didn't want to know. She could see that there were several hours of activity in front of them, as they got the camp ready for the trek back to the Stargate. Hopefully she could get her head down for a couple of hours before they actually moved out. Wrapt in her own thoughts, she failed to notice the frown on Brock's face, but Ursula did.

"What?" demanded the old woman, reaching out to poke him with a bony finger. "Speak your mind boy!"

Brock jumped, and absent-mindedly rubbed his arm where Ursula's long fingernail had jabbed it as he replied, "I was just thinking..."

"What is it?" Faith asked him, her heart rising.

"Skardhe's girl..." Brock's reply failed to enlighten the majority of those gathered there.

"Skardhe?" Ursula repeated with surprise. "He still alive?"

"Who's Skardhe?" Liss asked curiously.

"He was friends with my father," Brock explained. "They worked the same farm before Skardhe and his wife moved up the mountain to their own holding. They eked out a living up there for a few years before Lifa, Skardhe's wife, died."

"Foolish man!" the testy words burst of out Ursula as the old woman scowled. "He should have sent for me from the start, not waited until it became obvious the babe was breech."

"My father said that Skardhe changed then," Brock told them. "That he retreated within himself. He shunned company, took his child and moved further up the mountain."

"They've lived up there ever since," Ursula took up the tale. "Just the two of them. I'll say this for him, he's a good hunter. Some of my best pelts have come from him."

"What about his daughter?" Faith asked, seeing that the two could go on reminiscing all night if she let them.

"No-one knows much about her," Ursula said with a glance at Brock. "Skardhe comes down from the mountain now and then to trade but he keeps the girl at home. She must be almost twenty now but no-one's seen her since she was a babe."

"Until the Ori invaded," Brock said significantly and Ursula gave him a sharp look. He leaned forward intently as he explained, "Skardhe's come across a few survivors wandering around up there. He sent most of them to us, but some stayed."

"Why?" Ursula demanded incredulously.

"Skardhe's leading them in raids against the Ori," Brock told her.

"You said something about a settlement up the mountain," remembered Faith. She'd meant to ask him about it but it had slipped her weary mind.

"They're looking for something up there," said Brock. "Their priests have got the men digging everywhere."

"Looking for what?" Mallie asked breathlessly, her eyes wide.

"I wish I knew," Brock told her with a shrug.

"Okay, so the Ori are digging up the mountain looking for something and this Skardhe's recruiting people to stop 'em," Faith summed up. "But what about his kid?"

Brock frowned, "Skardhe doesn't keep goats."

Faith sighed and dropped her head into her heads. She felt like banging her head against the cave wall. If only she had the energy to get up.

"She means his daughter," Nya interpreted for her and Brock's confused frown melted away.

"Oh!" he realised. "Those that Skardhe sent to us said that she was the equal of any of the men who stayed. One boy called her Valkyrie."

"We've already got a Val," Mallie informed him. "We left her back at the Stargate."

Ursula snorted in derision, "Girl's called Elifa. In honour of her mother."

"Elle it is then," Faith sighed. "Which way and how far?"

**l**

Paler than usual, and sweating as she struggled to maintain her perfect balance despite the way the floor was swaying under her feet, Jool carefully made her way to the control room of the Odyssey in time to see SG-1 and her team disappear in a flash of light as she clung to the doorframe to catch her breath. Setting her jaw stubbornly, she moved into the room, determined to follow them.

On the planet below, Daniel had just begun to dial the Stargate when there was a bright flash and Jool was transported into their midst. She staggered, one hand going up to her swimming head, but managed to catch herself before Jon, lunging forward to catch her, could. He pulled himself up with metres to spare, his angry "Doc!" joining with the others' astonished exclamations.

Jool winced at the noise levels. "Not so loud," she begged, dropping her hand from her head.

"Stop dialling," Jon ordered Daniel.

Daniel started to automatically obey him and then checked himself, glancing at Mitchell. Mitchell nodded and Daniel stepped back from the DHD, letting the Stargate spin itself out. He glanced at Sam, catching her eye before they both turned back to look at the red-haired doctor in the middle of a concerned crowd.

"I'm fine!" Jool was insisting. "Really. Doctor Parnell released me."

"Why?" Jon demanded suspiciously.

"Because I'm fine," Jool told him, not mentioning the IV pole she'd bent into a knot to convince the Odyssey's doctor to let her go. "He cleared me for 'Gate travel."

"Yeah, right," scoffed Jon. "You can barely stand."

Jool, one arm slung over Vala's shoulders, glared at him. Beside him, Oz cleared his throat.

"Dude, drop it," the short werewolf advised. Jon frowned at him and Oz elaborated sagely, "That's a resolve face."

"I hate to break up the reunion," Mitchell said over the top of them all. "But are we heading out or not?"

"Odyssey, this is Captain O'Neil," Jon spoke into his radio. The Odyssey failed to respond and he frowned. "Odyssey, come in."

"They left," Jool told him smugly.

"Jackson, dial it up," Mitchell ordered. "Let's go home."

**l**

Hanging in geo-stationary orbit high above the ruins of Dakara, a light on one of the consoles in the bridge of the Ori mothership began to blink as the ship registered an incoming subspace communication from one of its sister-ships. In her room, Adria tilted her head to one side as she mentally accessed the message while Deama watched her stoically from across the room. With a thought, she sent back a message announcing her imminent arrival before she jumped the ship into hyperspace, never noticing that the transmission took several seconds longer than necessary.

"We are going to a world called Cimmeria," she announced to Deama.

Deama looked steadily back at her, not venturing a question. In truth, she had none. The Orici had all but subsumed her personality, leaving nothing behind but a devout trust in Adria's divine rule and a blind rage against all who would oppose Origin. Much of Deama's mind had been hollowed out to make room for Adria who, when she wished, could take total control of Deama's body, turning the misguided slayer into nothing more than a physical extension of Adria's mind and will. But, sitting alone on a deserted mothership, isolated amongst those who worshipped her and abandoned by her mother, Adria felt a strong need to talk to someone, _anyone_, despite her half-Ori heritage. In this case her human side was definitely the stronger, and felt the need for companionship. And so she confided in the girl she had lobotomised.

"My Priors have captured a girl they believe to be Clava. They are holding her for my inspection. Soon you will have a sister. Would you like that?"

Silence.

"I knew you would."


	27. Slayer's Gambit 3 of 3: Checkmate

**A/N:**

Longest. Chapter. Ever!

Hence the delay. But I promised to have the Cimmerian storyline wrapped up by the end of this arc and by golly that's what I've done! Please note, I made no such promises about cliff-hanger endings. ;) Some of you might feel that Faith's find in this chapter is a bit of a stretch. It is, but then I never bought the Cimmerian explanation for their rather impressive aqueduct system, and since I've already got the slayer line well established on the planet... *shrugs*

Now, I don't often do this, and when I have it's been done privately up until now (thanks and love! *hugs*), but I'm asking for your help. Yes, yours! You see, I'm so bogged down with the various storylines running through this universe that I haven't got the energy or inspiration needed to develop the one crucial one that deals with the multiverse. I'm talking about Dawn, and Buffy and Willow's pursuit of her. You've probably already gathered that Dawn's Key powers are on the fritz, sending her reality-hopping and if you've made it this far you should have worked out that nothing happens in this series without a reason.

My reasons for this plotline are threefold. The first objective was to remove Buffy and Willow from the temptation of assisting SG-13 and to take Dawn's Key abilities completely out of the equation. Check. The second objective was also accomplished, and relates directly to another plotline that's due to start to really kick off in the upcoming Momento Mori episode, so I don't want to give too much away, but I will say this; it also hinged on removing Willow. My third objective won't be fulfilled for a looooong time, not until Faith's back on Earth.

So I need to show their journeys, but my muse isn't co-operating and what I'd really like to know is what you want to see. Who do you want first Dawn, and then Buffy and Willow to meet? Let me know, and I'll do my best to write it.

But I've waffled for more than long enough, so...

Enjoy!

**Slayer's Gambit Part 3: Checkmate**

The first inkling that Kay and Jem, on watch at the cave entrance, had that the Ori were pulling out of the area was when Kay's mild nausea abruptly faded. Her own personal warning that a Prior was in the area; the nausea had a fortunate tendency to fade when she was actually fighting them, or when they disappeared, like now. The sun had not long set, and the moon was just rising as Kay shifted position slightly, frowning at the loss of the sensation.

"What?" Jem whispered from his position by her side. It was too dark for him to see her face, but her restlessness was enough to tell him that something was going on.

"The Prior just left," Kay whispered back. "How long ago did the last patrol pass?"

Jem opened his mouth to reply but her hand clamped down over his mouth before he had the chance. He'd learnt by now what that meant and raised no objection, listening hard instead. Sure enough, before long he heard the distant sound of boots tramping towards them.

The soldiers were clearly in a hurry, almost jogging as they passed the small heap of boulders that concealed the cave entrance, keeping to the treeline some metres distant. Kay waited until they were out of sight before she let Jem go, silently rising to her feet to stare after the soldiers, a thoughtful frown on her face.

"Something's happening," she said quietly. "Go tell Val that we're heading out and ask Dago to stand guard while we're gone."

Jem slipped off without a word of protest, grateful for something to do after hours of enforced inactivity. Left alone, Kay waited impatiently for him, every sense straining as she attempted to discern what was happening in the dark countryside. Dago appeared before Jem did, acknowledging her with a nod and a grunt before he took up his position. Kay returned the nod absently, more concerned with what lay ahead of her than the taciturn man.

"I'm here," Jem whispered as he joined them and Kay reminded him to be quiet as they set off.

Kay led them on the most direct route to the Stargate, eager to see what forces, if any, the Prior had left there. Several times however, she was forced to skirt around one of the ring platforms scattered around the countryside and once she and Jem managed to catch sight of one in use, beaming a squad of Ori soldiers away.

The Ori were leaving the area, but why? Kay worried that it was a bad sign. She'd deliberately stirred up the Ori in the area, hoping to draw attention away from Faith and the others. She'd been counting on boredom to make them relax their guard; that when nothing happened for a day or so they'd be reassigned, leaving the way clear for the others to return. But they were going ahead of schedule and in a hurry. It was as though something else was going on that demanded their attention. Kay hoped that the others weren't in trouble.

A patrol had been left behind to guard the clearing. Kay and Jem had no trouble evading the noisy soldiers as they guarded the perimeter of the clearing, giving the men crashing through the undergrowth a wide berth and settling themselves underneath a bushy shrub.

"Alright," Kay decided in a hushed whisper. "Get back to the cave and let them know what's happened."

"What are you going to do?" Jem demanded quietly.

"I'm going to keep find out what's going on," Kay told him. "Now, go on," she added, not unkindly, when he lingered. "Go!"

Jem went.

**l**

As the Stargate in front of him burst into life, Walter Harriman's hand shot out to cover the hand-scanner beside his keyboard. With a grating sound the iris slid shut over the rippling wormhole as Walter announced the unauthorised off-world connection through the PA system. A GDO code arrived as the sound of racing footsteps clattering down the metal staircase from the conference room above heralded the arrival of General Landry.

"It's SG-1, sir," Walter informed him without looking over his shoulder to confirm that it was the General. He'd recognise Landry's footsteps anywhere, just as he would General Hammond or General O'Neill.

"Open the iris," General Landry ordered, arriving at his customary position just behind Walter slightly out of breath.

"Yes, sir," Walter complied, placing his hand back down on the scanner.

The trinium and titanium alloy retracted back, revealing the open wormhole. Simultaneously, the SGC computers transmitted a signal that would turn a light on the waiting teams' GDO's from red to green, indicating that it was safe to return. General Landry disappeared as abruptly as he'd arrived, heading for the 'Gateroom and the Stargate rippled as SG-1 stepped out of it, followed closely by Vala Mal Doran and SG-13.

Walter frowned as the two teams and probationary member of the SGC made their way down the ramp. Years and years of working at the SGC gave him the experience necessary to notice the way that SG-13 clustered around Doctor Wilson, normally the strongest member of that team but now looking pale and weary. Even Miss Mal Doran had attached herself to SG-13's group, instead of Doctor Jackson's. Something was clearly wrong with Doctor Wilson. Walter was tempted to call a medical team to the 'Gateroom but she was ambulatory at least, even if she looked shaken. He kept his hand near the PA system though, just in case General Landry decided to order a medical team in.

The General however, arriving in the 'Gateroom just as the Stargate shut down with a hiss of displaced energy, failed to notice anything out of ordinary and merely ordered his teams to report for an immediate debriefing as soon as they'd cleared the infirmary. As the two teams left the 'Gateroom, Teal'c lingered to solemnly bow his head in greeting to Master Bra'tac, also observing the proceedings although from the briefing room window above the control room, before he hurried after his team-mates.

Walter was too busy to notice the exchange however, as just at that moment his attention was captured by the computer in front of him, which was showing a very disconcerting message. He frowned as he read it, wondering who was sending them a subspace message and why it was taking so long to arrive. It only took a few seconds to arrive, but subspace messages normally arrived instantaneously and intact. Furthermore, once it had arrived it became clear that this message was no message at all, but was instead a file of some sort, and a considerably large one at that. Walter's attempt to access it merely brought up a small box asking him to input his password. As Alice once said, curiouser and curiouser! Unfortunately, his password wasn't the one required.

"General Landry," said Walter, stopping that man on his way back through the control room from the 'Gateroom. "We've received a subspace communication."

"From who?" asked General Landry, moving closer.

Walter shrugged, freely admitting, "I don't know, sir."

**l**

As Faith followed their youthful guide and his horse at a distance up the steeply ascending path, she couldn't help but wonder if everyone on this world had disappeared into caves when the Ori invaded. When they left, would they be leaving hundreds of people behind to suffer at the hands of the Ori? Brock swore that Skardhe's band of fighters and Gunnarr's people back at the 'Gate were the only groups of survivors left that he knew about but the thought that she might be leaving people behind worried Faith. She didn't like leaving Mallie behind on her own either, but the young blonde had insisted and Brock had agreed with her once he realised that Faith was intending to go find Skardhe and his daughter on her own, pointing out that she was heading directly into Ori controlled territory. Nya and Liss hadn't been too happy with the idea of being left behind either. Neither had Mallie mind you, but at least she'd been able to see that she was the logical one to stay, having had the most experience with horses.

Oh yeah, _that _had been a surprise! The cave system inside the cliff was far larger than Faith had originally realised, and the people sheltering inside had housed a herd of horses in one vast cavern. Brock planned to use them to help evacuate his people to Gunnarr's cave, where the animals would be turned loose. If all went according to plan then Faith and the others with her would meet them there, climbing down the south face of the mountain after they found Skardhe and his gang and cutting out the circuitous route the others would have to take to skirt round the mountain. But when did anything ever go to plan?

Faith was uncomfortably aware that each part of her hastily-devised plan depended on all the other parts working to succeed. If Kay couldn't manage to hold the 'Gate; if Gunnarr's cave was discovered and overrun; if Mallie, Brock and Ursula didn't get these people to the others; if Skardhe wasn't where the kid in front of her said he was; if the Ori caught any of them, or worked out what was going on under their noses... if any one of those things happened, then they were screwed. Worse, until she got back to the 'Gate she would have no clue if anything went wrong. She didn't even know if they were okay back there or if something had happened since she'd been gone. The problem was they had no way to communicate over distances...

"Life would be so much easier if we had radios..." she sighed, unconsciously speaking aloud.

"What?" asked Liss, walking behind her.

"Nothing," Faith told her, shaking off her introspective mood as they turned a corner and the passageway opened out onto a view of the night sky.

Undaunted, their young guide continued forward, leading his horse towards the drop and around the left side of the cave entrance. Approaching the hole, Faith could see that there was a small stone ledge jutting out from the cave floor and continuing on to the left. Sticking her head outside, she could see their guide waiting for them on the ledge, now sat on top of his horse.

"Uhhh...." squeaked Liss, shrinking back against the cave wall and clinging on to it with outstretched arms. "Is now a good time to mention that I have a slight problem with heights?"

Looking at her, Faith swore. "Ny, you okay with it?" she asked the other slayer.

"Yes," Nya confirmed, nodding her head.

"Great," said Faith. "You go first, and hold onto Liss' hand. I'll hold the other one an' Liss, you keep your eyes shut until I tell you you can open 'em, okay?"

"Okay," Liss agreed faintly, closing her eyes.

"Okay," said Faith, taking hold of one hand as Nya took hold of the other. "Let's go."

**l**

In the briefing room, Bra'tac was waiting patiently for Teal'c and his comrades to arrive while General Landry dealt with some paperwork in his office, the connecting door between the rooms open. The SGC's commander had offered his apologies for his absence and Bra'tac sympathised with him. The Jaffa High Council had kept meticulous records of everything they had discussed, records that had been destroyed along with the rest of Dakara. From small comments that Teal'c had made over the years, Bra'tac had gathered that the Tau'ri had a mania for documentation that was unrivalled in the galaxy. It was a system which seemed to work exceedingly well for them.

Voices impinged on his thoughts and he stood as SG-1 and SG-13 entered the room, talking amongst themselves. Teal'c was the first to reach his old friend and mentor and the two clasped forearms, exchanging respectful greetings.

"It is good to see you, old friend," Teal'c told Bra'tac. "What brings you here?"

"Can you not guess?" Bra'tac asked him soberly, and Teal'c looked sombre. "It is a dark day for the Jaffa Free Nation."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed as General Landry entered the room.

Bra'tac greeted each of the team-mates by name as they took their seats. Settling himself in a chair, he frowned as he looked around the table. "But where is Doctor Wilson?" he asked.

General Landry's gaze sharpened as he glanced at Captain O'Neil with a frown, but it was Vala Mal Doran who supplied the answer.

"Doctor Lam wouldn't let her come," she confided helpfully. "She wants to keep her overnight because of the whole skull fracture thing."

"Skull fracture?" General Landry asked, sounding surprised.

"Will one night be sufficient?" Bra'tac asked, concerned. He had not realised Tau'ri medicine had come so far.

"She's fine," Captain O'Neil said curtly, glaring at Vala Mal Doran. "It's just a concussion."

Bra'tac frowned, glancing between Vala Mal Doran and the young Captain with confusion. Which was the truth? Concussion or skull fracture?

"How did it happen?" General Landry wanted to know, a troubled frown on his face.

"Deama slammed her head into the floor," Daniel Jackson informed him. He grimaced, "Repeatedly."

"Who's Deama?" demanded General Landry. Several people tried to tell him at once and he held his hands up, pitching his voice above theirs as he ordered them to start at the beginning.

Slowly, and with many interruptions and corrections, events on the planet the Tau'ri had designated P3X-29J were examined in the traditional Tau'ri post-battle ritual. Bra'tac was no stranger to these rituals and was normally content to ask as few questions as possible; anything he was unsure of Teal'c could be relied upon to explain fully, and he had noticed that his policy tended to shorten the rituals. But even he had to interrupt when Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran admitted that it had been Adria who had rescued them from the Jaffa sent to capture the Ori mothership.

"Adria?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Did you not say she was in the village when the radiation wave engulfed the planet?"

"She had a-a necklace," Vala told him, waving her hand at her own throat. "She said that it protected her."

"An amulet?" Andrew asked, perking up. "What did it look like?"

"Presumably she's able to extend that protection," Daniel said over the top of Vala as she began to describe Adria's necklace to Andrew. "Because Deama survived too."

"Who is this Deama?" Bra'tac asked with a confused frown. "You said that she is Clava, chosen to be the Orici's handmaiden, but what do you mean by that? How was she chosen and why? Are there more like her?"

The effect his words had on the group was significant, although Bra'tac couldn't understand why it should be so. SG-1 all managed to find somewhere innocuous to be looking, while Vala Mal Doran inspected her fingernails with an air of studied nonchalance. General Landry busied himself shuffling the papers in front of him as Daniel Osbourne and Andrew Wells exchanged wary looks before turning to look at Captain O'Neil. The Captain nodded, ever so slightly, and Andrew Wells leaned forward, swelling importantly.

"We believe," he said in a confiding tone. "That Deama is what you would call a hok'taur."

"An advanced human?" Bra'tac scoffed as Andrew paused for dramatic effect. "Such things are myths."

"We have encountered hok'taurs in the past," Teal'c informed him. "On several occasions."

Bra'tac's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Truly?" he asked and Teal'c inclined his head. Frowning, Bra'tac stroked his beard, "And you believe this Deama to be one such?"

"Specifically," Andrew Wells jumped back into the conversation. "One that we of Earth know as Slayer."

"Slayer?" Bra'tac abandoned his beard as his frown deepened. "What abilities does a slayer possess?"

"Superior strength, speed and skill," Andrew told him. "Accelerated healing, ears that can hear a tub of Ben and Jerry's being opened five rooms away and a sixth sense that warns them of evil and sample sales. Throughout the generations, since the dawn of time, the Slayer has stood against the forces of darkness and won, one girl in all the world to fight the spread of evil..." Andrew shrugged, "Well, until me and my friends fought a totally epic battle against the First Evil and kicked its incorporeal butt by activating all of the potential slayers in the world and, I guess, the rest of the galaxy too."

Bra'tac blinked at him. Repeatedly. Finally, he turned to Teal'c, a look of puzzled consternation on his face.

"Slayers are formidable warriors," Teal'c informed him. "They fight evil, in all its forms."

"But they are destined to join the Orici," Bra'tac pointed out reasonably.

"I, uh, I believe that that's a recruitment speech, so to speak," said Daniel, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I'll have to check but I'm fairly certain that there's no mention of Clava or an Oriclave in the Book of Origin. I think Adria's hoping if she spreads the words that slayers will automatically be ascended she'll get some new recruits, but we already know that the Ori don't ascend their followers."

"Yeah, well, whether it's true or not, it looks like it's working," Jon said acerbically.

"Faith," Oz said cryptically. He expanded when they all stared at him in confusion, "Might as well tell him everything."

"Right," said Andrew. "Traditionally the Slayer is a champion of good, but occasionally there is a rogue slayer. Deama is one such example, and, once upon a time, so was–" Jon kicked him under the table. Hard. "F–Ow!"

"Dude, the prophecy," Oz told him, shaking his head.

Rather than let Andrew confuse Bra'tac further, Jon bottom-lined it for him, "Faith's a slayer. From what we can gather, she's collecting the other slayers out there and protecting them from Adria."

"How many has she found?" Bra'tac asked him.

"Last count, three," Jon admitted. "But that was a while ago."

"I see," murmured Bra'tac, stroking his beard meditatively.

"How did you and Teal'c escape?" General Landry asked Andrew Wells, moving on.

"That was Oz and I, sir," Colonel Mitchell informed him, and proceeded to tell a highly edited tale of how he and Oz had come to zat two Jaffa. Bra'tac looked like he already had more than enough on his mind without adding werewolves to the load.

It was true that after the recent revelations, very little of the tale that unfolded had the power to stir Bra'tac. Lost in his own thoughts, it wasn't until General Landry was recounting their own experiences on Dakara, attempting to reason with Se'tak, that something occurred to pique his interest.

Walter Harriman discretely entered the room from the control room and attempted to leave just as discretely. But his entrance had been noted by several people and General Landry glanced over his shoulder to see what was distracting them.

"What is it, Walter?" he asked testily, a little annoyed at the interruption.

"Sorry, sir," Walter apologised for his intrusion. "I thought you'd want to know that we've cracked the first layer of encryptment. I didn't realise you weren't done up here."

"Good," said the General. "How many more left to go?"

"Uh..." Walter looked uncomfortable as he admitted, "We don't know, sir."

"Excuse me, sir," Sam interrupted, intrigued. "What encryptment?"

"Shortly after your return we received a subspace communication," Landry told her.

"Who from?" asked Cam.

Landry scowled, "We don't know. It seems to be some kind of file but it's encrypted and whoever sent it didn't think to include the password."

"Huh," said Oz, looking mildly surprised. "It worked."

"What worked?" General Landry demanded.

"I uploaded a computer program into the ship's systems before we were beamed off," Oz explained. He shrugged, "Long shot. Apparently it paid off."

"What kind of program?" Sam wanted to know.

"Willow and I created it back in high school," Oz told her. "It was originally designed to search for certain parameters on a hard drive and relay that information back to us. Instead of having to hack into the Coroner's office every day, we got emails whenever anything suspicious showed up."

"You uploaded a computer virus into an Ori mothership?" incredulous, Sam had to check.

"I had to tweak it a bit," Oz admitted with a self-deprecating shrug.

"How so?" asked General Landry.

"Widened the search parameters," Oz told them. "Ship doesn't have a modem, so I had to tie it into subspace communications. Oh, and I added Doctor McKay's data compression program so there wasn't a noticeable transmissions lag. Probably shouldn't unpack it on the 'Gate servers."

"Sir, I'm recommending that we hold off studying the data until we've set up a secure server that's completely isolated from our systems," Sam immediately informed General Landry.

"Sounds reasonable," he agreed. "Are there any other security measures you think we should put in place?"

"Until I know what we're looking at, I won't know for sure," Sam told him.

"Very well," Landry nodded, looking at both Sam and Oz. "I'll expect your preliminary report tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," Sam agreed as Oz nodded his compliance.

"On that note, I look forward to reading your mission reports," Landry told them all. "In the meantime, go home. Get some rest. You deserve it. SG-13 is to report for briefing at oh-nine-fifteen, SG-1 at oh-nine-four-five."

To the sound of weary agreement he stood, dismissing them. Oz, Sam and Walter disappeared down to the control room, to calculate the size of the requisition forms they'd be submitting for their newest joint project. Teal'c, Daniel and Bra'tac remained in the briefing room, talking of mutual acquaintances, while Andrew muttered something about a much-needed shower and vanished. A rather subdued Vala opted to stay near Daniel. Cam found himself walking out of the room next to O'Neil and asked him what his plans were for what the rest of the night.

"Quick trip to the infirmary then home to bed," Jon told him. "How 'bout you?"

Cam yawned, "I'm bushed," he admitted. "Think I'll crash here tonight." Considering that he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open just walking, driving himself back to town was probably a bad idea.

"Good plan," Jon approved with a vague nod, hitting the button to call the elevator. The doors opened immediately and the two men stepped inside.

"Say hi to Jool for me," Cam told Jon as the elevator quickly rose to level twenty-four.

"Yeah," said Jon as the doors opened. "Sure. You betcha... See you tomorrow."

Cam waved his arm in reply as he shuffled out of the elevator, heading for his room. Reaching it, he pushed the door shut behind him and launched himself, fully-clothed, at the bed. He was asleep before he hit the mattress.

**l**

Faith was starting to wonder if she was going to make it to Skardhe's, let alone back to the 'Gate when she felt her second wind start to kick in. All of a sudden her legs stopped burning, her lungs stopped aching and she felt like she could run forever if necessary. Fortunately for Liss and Nya, whose second winds had yet to catch up to them, they didn't have much further to go. After a few minutes, their guide turned his horse off the barely-discernable track they were following, heading towards a rocky outcropping. Faith recognised the signs of a Cimmerian home immediately.

When they reached it however, they discovered that the cave it concealed was deserted, although whoever lived there had left most of their belongings behind, obviously intending to return. While Nya and Liss caught their breath, Faith prowled, exploring their surroundings. Most of the clothes that had been left behind belonged to men and seemed to come in three different sizes, large, larger and largest. But a neatly folded pile contained a woman's dress, and someone had taken the time to wash up several bowls, spoons and a large copper pot before they had left. Crouching down, Faith touched the stones that ringed the cold firepit, feeling warmth radiate into her palm.

"Stones are still warm," she commented. "Weapons are all gone." She stood, "Looks like they're planning on coming back."

"So, we are waiting here until their return?" Nya asked hopefully.

Faith frowned, an uneasy sensation in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about this place felt wrong. The nagging suspicion that she was running out of time was back with a vengeance and working at full force. She glanced around the cave looking for anything out of place, but failed to find anything. She caught sight of their guide out of the corner of her eye, standing by his horse at a small spring that ran through the clearing in front of the cave and turned to face him.

"Hey, kid!" she called quietly, and he turned around. "How far away are the Ori?"

"Not far," he replied in a low tone, abandoning his horse to draw closer. "An hour's journey at most."

"Which way?" asked Faith, and Liss groaned.

"Really?" the blonde Langaran asked disbelievingly. She groaned again as she caught sight of Faith's face and began to pull herself to her aching feet, wincing as they throbbed painfully.

Faith followed their young guide's pointing finger up the mountain, frowning as she tried to work out the best move to make. Brock had made it sound like these guys specialised in quick raids, guerrilla-style, but if that was true then they should be back by now. Unless they were lying in wait, right now. In which case, maybe they could use some help. And if something had gone wrong, they could definitely do with help. But stirring up the Ori could tip her hand and alert them to the fact that she and the others were on the planet... or, it could pull heat off Mallie or Kay.

Mallie probably hadn't set off yet, so they had time for a quick diversion. Besides, Faith had to admit that she was curious about just what the Ori were doing up here. There was no harm in taking a peek, and if they didn't run into Skardhe and his gang they could always come back here to wait for them. But she really didn't want to drag their guide, a young teenager whose name she'd promptly forgotten, into what could turn out to be a fight for their lives. Maybe if there was more of them they could look out for the kid, but she had no idea how many soldiers there were up there. There wasn't a Prior, she could tell that much, even from this far. So what were they doing up there?

"Get back to the caves," she told the kid. "Tell Mallie and Brock we went to go say hello to the Ori and we'll meet them back at the 'Gate."

"Brock said I was to make sure you didn't get lost," the kid said, setting his jaw stubbornly. Faith raised her eyebrows at the kid, who looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. "He did!" he insisted sullenly.

"Cliff's that way, 'Gate's over there and follow the creepy feeling to the bad guys," Faith reeled off, pointing in various directions.

"What if they've gone without me?" the boy asked, sniffing and wiping his nose with his cuff.

"You know where the Stargate is?" Faith asked him. He nodded reluctantly. "Then go there and tell Kay I said to stick to the plan."

His jaw jutting out rebelliously, the boy trudged back to his horse and mounted, jerking its head away from the stream. He urged his horse back they way they'd come unenthusiastically, casting morose looks back over his shoulder. Ignoring him, Faith led Liss and Nya into the undergrowth, heading up the mountain to the Ori encampment. So she wasn't there to see when, several minutes later, the boy (whose name was Arne) reappeared in the small clearing, following them at a distance.

**l**

Although Jon had allowed Mitchell to think that he was going to see the Doc, the truth was he had a slightly different destination in mind. He took the long route there, avoiding the main infirmary, where Doc was spending the night under Caroline's watchful eye, and refusing to feel guilty about it. He knew that she was okay... it was another person he was worried about.

His quick exit from the briefing room had worked to his advantage; his former team-mates seemed to have temporarily forgotten that Jonas had regained consciousness during their absence. His room was deserted, but Jonas himself was asleep. Jon approached his bed softly, almost holding his breath as he stared down at the familiar face of the man he had once commanded. The years had aged Jonas slightly, deepening the lines around his eyes and mouth, thinning his hairline and sprinkling a generous handful of grey in amongst the brown. He was still the same Jonas though, even if he was covered in fading bruises. Jon remembered the time when he'd thought he'd never see Jonas again, never step through the 'Gate again... Jonas stirred, driving all other thoughts out of Jon's mind as he opened his eyes.

"Hey," Jon smiled reassuringly at him. "How you feeling?"

"I've felt better," Jonas said honestly, pushing himself up slightly. He looked around the room and frowned, "Where's Doctor Lam?"

"In the main infirmary," Jon told him. "I can go get her?"

"No, it's alright," Jonas declined the offer. "Could you pass me that glass of water please?"

"Sure," Jon agreed, reaching for it. He hesitated before he passed it over however, saying, "Listen... Jonas. Don't think that I'm not pleased you're feeling better, 'cause I am. You had us all worried there. It's just... we need to know about Faith."

"I've already told General Landry all I know," said Jonas. "He told me I was the only one who made it through the Stargate."

"Of course you did," Jon said, more to himself than to Jonas, as he handed the water over.

"I don't mean to be rude," said Jonas, pushing himself further up to drink. "But who are you? You weren't stationed at the SGC when I worked here, were you?"

"Me?" asked Jon, rudely recalled to his teenaged body. "No, sir. Captain O'Neil," he introduced himself. "SG-13. We're assigned to find and assist Faith."

"O'Neill?" Jonas asked, perking up as he added two and two together and came up with something that wasn't the correct answer but at least looked a lot like four. "I didn't know Jack had any relatives in the Air Force."

"It's spelt with one l," Jon informed him tonelessly. "If you'll excuse me, I have a team-mate in the infirmary I really should visit."

"Nothing serious I hope," said Jonas.

"Mild concussion," Jon said with a shrug. "She'll probably be in here tomorrow, sticking you full of needles."

As Jonas raised his eyebrows in surprise, Jon made his escape. But the young Captain had intrigued him and he continued to watch the door for several minutes after he had left, turning the encounter over in his mind.

Meanwhile, Jon was aimlessly wandering the hallways, wrapped in self-castigation. He should have remembered that Jonas wouldn't recognise him, he told himself fiercely. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What was wrong with him? That was a rookie mistake to make! It took several repeated shouts of his name to break his absorption and cause him to look up and take a couple of steps back so that he could see round the door into the room the shouts had come from.

The Doc was sitting bolt upright in her bed, an eager look on her face as she beckoned him into the room. Across the infirmary, Caroline was glaring at her for disturbing the other patients. Not that the Doc noticed. Suppressing a sigh, Jon entered the room. After the day he'd had he really wanted to go home, watch the new episode of The Simpsons that he'd taped, drink a few beers and go to bed. But the Doc clearly wanted him... in more ways than one. His lips quirked as he remembered her earlier words onboard the Odyssey, and his world brightened a little.

"What's up?" he asked her as he drew near her bed.

"How did the briefing go?" she asked eagerly.

"Peachy," Jon told her with a shrug. "Bra'tac was there. Apparently he and Landry were on Dakara."

"Are they alright?" Jool asked with some concern.

"Yeah, they're fine," said Jon. "Obviously, they managed to get off before Adria blew it to pieces."

"Good," Jool said with a smile. "So... if the briefing went well, why are you looking so miserable?"

"I just saw Jonas," Jon started to tell her.

Jool interrupted him, demanding eagerly, "How is he?"

"Oh, he's fine," Jon told her in falsely cheerful tones. "He wanted to know who I was, but he's fine."

"I'm sorry," Jool sympathised before the significance of what he'd just said caught up with her. "Wait... Jonas is awake?"

"Yeah..." John said slowly, staring at her. He'd told her so himself, onboard the Odyssey, right before she'd told him she fancied the pants off him...

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" she demanded. "Caroline? Caroline!"

Of course, she'd also said that she might not remember the conversation, Jon remembered glumly as Doctor Lam approached them. And it looked like she was right.

"Caroline, why didn't you tell me that Jonas was awake?" Jool asked immediately, as soon as her friend and colleague joined them.

"Thank you, Captain," Caroline said coldly, glaring at him. "I was hoping to keep the news from Jool until she had completely recovered."

"I feel fine," Jool impatiently brushed off Caroline's concern. "When did he wake up?"

Thoroughly depressed now, Jon quietly disappeared as Caroline began to answer Jool's questions, heading for the changing room and hoping like hell that Andrew had left already. He really wasn't in the mood for his constant chattering right now.

Fortunately for both Jon and Andrew, the young watcher had already left the mountain and the changing room was deserted. Jon was halfway through changing when the door opened and Oz entered the room. Once glance at Jon's face however, was enough to convince the werewolf that something had happened to upset his commander and he said nothing, merely acknowledging him with a nod and making a private decision to ask him for a lift home, on the off-chance that he wanted to talk, before he left.

Jon had seemed relatively upbeat during the briefing and Oz wondered what had happened to upset him in the short amount of time it had taken Walter, Colonel Carter and himself to decide what sort of hardware they needed to decode the data the Ori mothership had sent them. Walter had volunteered to fill in the requisition forms and present them to General Landry for his signature before the General left for the night, freeing both Oz and Colonel Carter to go their separate ways. The Colonel hadn't told him where she was going but he'd seen her heading for the elevators and assumed that she was going to see Jonas Quinn, her former team-mate.

He was right, and when Sam arrived at Jonas' room she found herself immediately verbally pounced upon as Jonas, relieved to see a familiar face at last, abandoned his usual innate courtesy and demanded to know when the SGC had started employing teenagers.

"Ah," said Sam, closing the door behind her as she entered the room. "You've met SG-13."

"Just Captain O'Neil," Jonas told her, struck by a sudden thought. "You mean they're _all _teenagers?"

"The Captain's the youngest," Sam explained, taking a seat beside Jonas. "I think Oz – Daniel Osbourne – is the oldest. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Jonas replied, brushing off her concern. "How old is he?"

"Twenty-six I think," Sam deliberately misunderstood him, telling him Oz's age.

"And Captain O'Neil?" asked Jonas, proving that his recent head injury hadn't damaged his mind in any way.

"Eighteen," Sam told him Jon official age reluctantly, knowing all too well that Jonas had once read every Air Force rule and regulation, committing them to his formidable memory.

She was right. Jonas frowned as he realised that there was no way, at eighteen, the Captain could have finished basic training, let alone attained the rank he held.

"Who is he, Sam?" Jonas asked seriously.

"All I can tell you is that SG-13 was put together by an international organisation to find Faith," Sam explained uncomfortably, shifting in her chair and avoiding his eyes.

"The Watchers Council," Jonas guessed astutely. Reading the surprise in her eyes, he explained, "Faith told me a little about them."

"Then she _was _on Langara?" asked Sam, eager to change the subject. "What happened?"

Jonas began to explain the events that had led up to his unexpected and precipitate return to Earth, dropping all mention of Captain O'Neil, much to Sam's relief. He showed no inclination to return to it when Daniel, Teal'c, Bra'tac and Vala joined them and Sam allowed herself to relax. Jonas seemed to have forgotten the subject, for now at least. Sam was under no delusion that he had forgotten it entirely though, and she wished she could tell him the truth. He was bound to discover it eventually, and Jonas being Jonas, she'd bet on it being sooner rather than later.

**l**

Mallie cast an inexperienced eye over the crowd as she made her way over to Ursula, sitting astride another horse. They had just enough horses to carry the elderly, infirm and children, and Ursula had taken charge of the mounted group, assigning partners to everyone for the ride and instructing them to stay close together. They would be travelling in the centre of the group, with the women on foot close by. Mallie and the men would form a defensive perimeter around the travellers, keeping an eye out for Ori patrols.

"Where is Brock?" she asked, reaching Ursula.

"Talking with Gamall and Tumi," Ursula told her, pointing in their direction.

"Are you ready to leave?" Mallie asked.

"Been ready this half-hour and more," Ursula said bluntly.

"Good," Mallie patted Ursula's horse on the neck before she left, heading in the direction Ursula had indicated.

Pushing her way through the crowd, she quickly reached Brock, who dismissed the two men he had been talking to, moving forward to meet her. Unlike most of the others, the only things he carried were his weapons. Almost everyone was carrying as many of their belongings as they could, which would slow them down considerably. Mallie had tried to convince them to leave behind as much as possible, but the argument had only taken up time they could ill afford to lose. She had been hoping to reach the Stargate by sunrise, but knew they would be lucky to make it by mid-morning at this rate. It seemed that Brock had been more successful than her though, for the two men he had been talking to also carried nothing other than weapons.

"There you are!" greeted Brock, forestalling Mallie's own similar comment. "We're ready to depart whenever you are."

"I'm good to go," Mallie told him, borrowing one of Faith's expressions. "Ursula's ready too."

"Good," said Brock, moving towards a large boulder close by. Reaching it, he easily leapt on top of it, facing the crowd.

"Listen to me!" he called over the hubbub and the crowd turn to face his, the noise dying down. "I know that your hearth-leaders have told you what is happening and what we may face. But I've heard a lot of gossip and a lot of doubts while we've been out here and I wanted to tell you what it is that we are about to do myself.

"Busy though he may be, Thor has not forgotten us," he told the crowd, his low voice carrying clearly to each of them. "He has found for us a world of plenty, safe from the ravages of the Ori, and he has sent to us his battle-maidens to protect and guide us there. Six of them! More valkyries than we have ever before seen... They will lead us to Valhalla and with Thor's Chosen by our side, how can we fail? Together we will crush the Ori and drive them before us until they are no more!" There was a ripple of agreement from the crowd, who were too conscious of their exposed position to give reign to the cheers that this statement would have normally produced. "Cimmeria is not the first world the Ori have taken by force but, Gods willing, it will be the last!"

This last statement did produce a few low cheers from the suddenly bustling crowd as Brock jumped off the boulder, landing opposite Mallie to face her. She looked unimpressed.

"Can we go now?" she asked, her eyebrows arched high and one foot tapping impatiently.

**l**

The moon hanging in the unfamiliar sky was almost full, shining its silvery light down on Cimmeria and illuminating the mountainside as Faith, Nya and Liss closed the gap between them and the Ori camp. To the slayers, with their supernatural eyesight, it might as well have been day. They had no real need of the moonlight but Arne, following them at a distance, was grateful for it. The slayers left no trail to mark their passing and all the young teen could do was point his horse in the direction Faith had indicated and pray to the Gods that he didn't miss or overtake them.

Arne was under no illusions as to his fate should he blunder into the Ori camp. He had seen his parents killed in front of him because they had refused to turn to Origin; it was why he had fought desperately to be accepted into Skardhe's band of warriors. But Skardhe had said he was too young and sent him to Brock. At the time Arne had been angry. Skardhe had said that Thor had a different fate in mind for him, but hiding from the Ori wasn't the fate that Arne had wanted. Now though, he knew that Skardhe was right. Thor had sent Arne to the cliffs to guide his valkyries. All Arne had to do was catch them up.

Ahead of him, the slayers had stopped, halting and disappearing into their surroundings when their sensitive ears caught the unmistakable sound of someone crashing through the undergrowth towards them. Quickly they concealed themselves directly in the path of whoever it was, spaced out so they had a better chance of intercepting them.

It wasn't long before their superior eyesight enabled the slayers to pick out the figure of a local man stumbling towards them. He held his hand pressed tightly to his stomach as he staggered along and several dark patches on his clothing shone ominously wet in the moonlight. Beside Faith, branches swayed and leaves rustled as Liss stepped out in front of him.

He started, and tried to run, but Liss was in front of him before he could get far and Faith was already moving to go help. Reluctantly, Nya followed them. The guy was older than Faith had originally thought, the hair that she had believed to be blonde in the moonlight turning out to be a pale grey on closer inspection. Deep lines had carved their way into his face around his eyes and mouth over the years. Up close, what little Faith could see of his injuries looked worse as he struggled to get past Liss. The blonde Langaran's eyes met Faith's over his shoulder and the man suddenly found himself sitting on the ground, a firm hand on his good shoulder keeping him there.

"Let me go," he protested, looking up at Liss. "You must... Have to reach..."

"You're not gonna make it anywhere if you don't let us try and patch you up," Faith told him bluntly, moving into his sight.

He jumped but stayed where he was, his strength seeming to leave him now he was off his feet. Faith could sympathise, sometimes it seemed like she'd been on the comedown edge of an adrenaline boost ever since she'd been called as a teenager back in Boston all those years ago. If someone had told her back then that she'd last long enough to see every potential slayer called and make it into space she'd probably have asked them what they were cutting their crack with.

"Got to..." the man panted as Liss let go of his shoulder to rummage in the pack she carried slung over her back. Faith tensed but the man made no attempt to stand, just speak. "Tell... Brock."

"Brock's not there anymore," Faith gave it to him straight as Liss produced a pair of scissors and a fistful of bandages. "He moved. We're friends of his. I'm Faith, this is Liss and over there's Nya. You Skardhe?"

Skardhe nodded, his voice wheezing as he asked, "Why?"

"He heard about this quiet, outta-the-way kinda place, where the Ori won't think of looking for your people," Faith told him, understanding what it was that he was asking. "Decided to relocate. How'd the raid go?"

Skardhe snorted derisively, which led naturally to a coughing fit. Faith's concerned eyes met Liss' grave ones as the younger slayer deftly administered first aid. When he had recovered, he looked directly at Faith, his gaze intent.

"Killed... my men." Skardhe struggled to tell her. "Took El-Elifa."

"Shit!" Faith swore, rising to her feet to pace back and forth as her mind worked quickly.

She hadn't banked on Skardhe picking tonight to hold a raid, or on the Ori capturing the slayer she'd come to collect. It changed everything. She'd been hoping to catch Skardhe before he mounted his attack, avoiding a confrontation with the Ori while her forces were split all over the planet. Okay, so it had gone against every instinct she possessed to sneak around, avoiding the Ori; she'd never been one to back down from a fight. But her oh-so-brilliant strategy of divide and conquer meant that now she only had two slayers and a badly injured man to go head to head against an unknown amount of Ori. A glance at Skardhe as Liss tied off a bandage quickly convinced Faith that he was nothing but a liability. He might perk up a bit if they shoved some Ori in front of him but barring that, he was out for the count. By now Mallie would have left the cliffs, heading for the Stargate, where Kay and Val were waiting. The Stargate... It was the only place where she could be guaranteed to find back-up, but by the time they'd made it there and back it might be too late. Besides, she doubted whether Skardhe could make it to the cliffs, let alone the 'Gate. He wasn't looking good. Liss had almost finished wrapping bandages round him while Nya hovered at a distance, clearly itching to be on the move.

"Nice work," Faith complimented, struck by the professional job Liss had done.

"Thank you," said Liss, glancing up at her. "Jonas insisted that all members of off-world teams learn at least basic emergency aid."

"Okay," said Faith, coming to a decision. "Get him back to his cave. Nya an' I'll go take a look at this Ori camp we've heard so much about, see if we can't spring his daughter. If we're not back by dawn, get back to the 'Gate an' tell Kay I said to go."

"Why does _she _get to go?" Liss demanded, a mulish look on her face.

"Because Ny doesn't know first aid," Faith explained impatiently. "We good to go?"

"Go," Liss told them despondently, dragging a blanket out of her pack to cover Skardhe's bare torso.

They went.

**l**

Sipping his beer, Oz glanced at Jon out of the corner of his eye. The young Captain hadn't said anything since they'd left the mountain, other than to order their first round. He was currently staring morosely at the bottom of his almost empty glass. Catching the bartender's eye, Oz signalled for two more drinks with a flick of his forefinger.

Phil, the bartender and owner of Finnegan's, delivered them with a wary look before beating a hasty retreat back to the other end of the bar. SG-13 were proving bad for business for Colorado Springs' premier (and only) demon bar. As soon as Jon and Oz showed up, half of tonight's clientele had disappeared, heading for the hills or a deep dark hole somewhere safely away from the slayer that usually accompanied the two. She wasn't present tonight, but that didn't mean she wasn't planning on showing. Besides, Phil had heard that the short kid with the changeable hair colour was almost as lethal as a slayer. Some sort of shape-shifter. There were whispers he was a were, but he'd been known to change when the moon wasn't full. Phil wished they'd all find somewhere else to drink, but they seemed to like it here, despite Phil's attempts to make the small bar off-putting to humans. Until then, he wasn't going to be the one to upset them by suggesting they go elsewhere. People had a habit of dying when they irritated a slayer, even people who were almost half-human.

Jon downed the last of the beer in his glass, reaching for the next one. He was still waiting for the alcohol to kick in and leave him floating in a warm fuzzy feeling. Unfortunately, it looked like his teenaged body was developing a tolerance for the stuff. If it didn't kick in by the end of this beer, he'd start on the whiskey. He caught Oz peeking at him again and ignored it. He really wasn't in the mood to talk and while he appreciated the werewolf's tenacity – it rivalled even Teal'c's – he really wished he'd go away and let Jon get quietly drunk on his own.

"Ever tell you why I left Sunnydale?" Oz suddenly said, looking straight ahead, away from Jon. "I met this girl..."

"There's always," Jon said carefully. "A girl." First Sara, then Sam... now Julie Wilson. Jon swallowed some of beer to get rid of the bitter taste in his mouth.

"Hear, hear," a Bracken demon in a booth behind them quietly agreed. Both Oz and Jon turned to look at him and he raised a glass of a bright-pink concoction to them.

Looking at one another, Jon and Oz turned their backs on the demon, returning to their drinks. Oz picked up his story where he'd left off, censoring heavily for the benefit of the remaining bar patrons. He was confident that Jon would be able to fill in the blanks he left.

"Turned out she was just like me. Woke up one morning wrapped round her with no memory of how I got there." Jon lifted his glass, tilted slightly for a toast, and Oz obligingly tapped his own against it before he continued, "Only problem was, I already had a girlfriend." Jon glanced at Oz in surprise and Oz elaborated for him, "Willow."

"Rosenberg?" queried Jon, eyebrows raising. "Thought she batted for the other team?"

"Before she switched sides," Oz told him. "The girl, name of Veruca, liked being this way. Embraced it. She told me some home truths I didn't want to hear and I tried to convince her to cage herself. She joined me in mine and Willow found us the next morning."

"Ouch," Jon sympathised.

"Yeah," Oz said dryly. "Wills took it hard, but Veruca was worse. She tried to kill Willow." Oz glanced at Jon, hanging on his words, looking away before he admitted, "So I killed her."

"Understandable," Jon bolstered him when Oz faltered in his tale. "Willow was your girlfriend. You loved her. Did what you had to do."

"I loved Veruca too," said Oz. "At least, the part of me that I was trying to suppress did. She was my mate. But the part of me that's human, the part I was trying so desperately to hold onto, that part loved Willow more." Still did, Oz admitted to himself.

"I dropped out of college the next day," he continued, "Left town looking for answers. Finally found them in Tibet, and you know what the real kicker was?" Jon lifted his eyebrows inquiringly. "Veruca was right," Oz told him. "I had to accept what I am. Learn to live with it before I could think of controlling it. I am what I am, and I wouldn't change it."

"To women," Jon proposed a toast and Oz joined him, though he privately wondered if Jon had missed his point or was just ignoring it. "Can't live without them, but sometimes you gotta kill 'em."

**l**

Faith and Nya stumbled across an Ori patrol before they reached the camp. Unusually, it consisted of just two men patrolling the forest. They didn't bother to conceal their passage, they were too busy talking, their guards completely down as they strolled, their weapons held in loose grips. Nya leapt forward and Faith's hand closed around her arm like a vice as she dragged the younger slayer back. One finger over her lips, Faith shook her heard in warning, making sure Nya got the message before she returned her attention to what the soldiers were saying.

"... not fair. Just because we were on guard duty during the attack and didn't get the chance to show those savages who's boss, it doesn't mean we should get stuck with sentry duty while everyone else is celebrating," the bigger of the two was complaining.

"It, uh, sort of, is," said the smaller and slighter. He flinched when the other one raised his hand but the larger merely laughing, gently knocking the side of the smaller's helmet with his fist.

"All I'm saying is there better be some of the good stuff left when the watch changes," the larger said good-naturedly.

"Bren..." the smaller man said tentatively. "That-that girl..."

"The Orici's Clava?" the larger soldier guffawed, clapping him on the shoulder. The slighter man stumbled forward. "Best get those thoughts out of your mind, my friend!"

"She didn't seem to want to be a Clava," the smaller man said diffidently.

"That's because she's a heathen," the larger replied harshly. "Doesn't know any better. The Orici'll soon straighten her out. Have you met the Orici?"

"No..." sighed the slighter man.

"Ah, you'd understand if you had..." the bigger man said rapturously. Faith let go of Nya's arm and the two slayers sprang forward, making no sound as they rapidly closed the distance between the two soldiers walking away from them. "I met her once," the large man continued to reminisce.

Faith put on a burst of speed and swerved across Nya's path to put herself behind the smaller soldier. At the last possible moment before she barrelled into him, she stopped dead. Grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and yanked him backwards, clamping a hand over his mouth as Nya hit the big soldier and the two of them tumbled to the ground.

Under Faith's hands the soldier went rigid. She pulled one of her knives out of its sheath and held it to his throat. He went limp. On the ground, Nya managed to get hold of the soldier's head and twisted sharply. With an audible crack, his neck snapped. Faith felt the man she held shudder.

"I'm about to let go of you," she warned him, her voice almost a whisper. "If you run, I'll kill you. If you make any sudden movements, I'll kill you. Reach for your radio or whatever it is you guys use to communicate, I'll kill you. Shout, scream, yell... hell, even _breathe _loud, and I'll kill you. Got the picture?" Very carefully, the soldier nodded and Faith grinned, "Good."

She let go of him and the first thing he very quietly said was, "You-You killed Bren!"

"Congratulations," said Faith, circling round him predatorily. "You're catching on. Have a seat," she told him, tipping her knife at the ground.

He sat. Faith crouched down in front of him, toying with the knife she held. Again, this guy was older than he'd seemed at first. Faith put his age at mid-forties, based solely on the crow's feet around his eyes.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I won't tell you anything!" he said with false bravado.

"Really?" growled Nya, surging forward and grabbing him by the breastplate while she displayed the knife she held in front of his nose. "What if I were to cut off your finger? What then?"

"Easy!" Faith hauled her back. "Easy... Don't jump right in there with amputation. There's an art to these things. Now, we can't do hot or cold, too difficult, and loud'll just bring too much attention. But there's no reason we can't manage blunt and sharp before we start cutting off body parts..." With an evil grin, Faith flicked her gaze meaningfully down to their prisoner's lap and back, making sure she kept right on playing with her knife. He gulped.

"What do you want to know?" he asked in a faint voice.

"The girl you captured," Faith said in a cold voice, cutting to the chase. "The young one who didn't want to be Adria's bitch. Where are you holding her?"

"The Prior took her up to the ship," the words almost tumbled out of his mouth and Faith suppressed a wince, keeping her face stony.

"Is Adria, the Orici, here?" Faith asked next.

"No," he said, and Faith breathed a sigh of relief. Too soon, because he continued, "She is on her way."

"When will she arrive?" demanded Nya.

"I don't know," he admitted bravely. "Sometime tomorrow."

"What are you doing up here?" Faith wanted to know. "What were you guarding during the attack?"

"The door," he replied cryptically.

"What door?" Faith asked impatiently. "Door to what?"

"I don't know," he said helplessly. "The Priors told us where to dig and yesterday we found a door. The Priors examined it and said that only the Orici may pass. They ordered a guard kept."

Faith frowned. Why bother to keep a guard on a door that only Adria could open? What had the Ori found up here? Did she have time to take a look before Adria arrived? Whatever it was, it was important to the Ori.

"How many guards?" she asked.

"Two," the soldier told her.

"Where?"

The soldier pointed in the direction of the Ori camp and Faith sighed impatiently, edging closer to the soldier with her knife. He very quickly began to talk, words spilling out in his eagerness to be helpful. The door was located at the end of a tunnel dug in the middle of the camp. The guards guarded the tunnel entrance rather than the door itself, making sure no-one came close to it. Asking more questions, Faith found out everything she needed to know about the camp; how many men were there, how many would be on guard duty and the exact location of the tunnel. The party the soldier had been talking to his friend about was to celebration Skardhe's recent defeat and his daughter's capture. The Prior's had issued alcohol rations to the camp, among other things. That would make things easier for Nya and Faith.

Finally there were no more questions she could ask the soldier, he had reached the end of his usefulness. There was only one way that he could help them now, but something in Faith hesitated to strike the killing blow. She frowned as she adjusted her grip on her knife, unwilling to ask Nya to do it for her and thereby betray a weakness.

"I'm sorry," she said, moving towards him.

"Wait, what?" their prisoner asked, scrambling backwards. "But-but I helped you!"

"Nothing personal," Faith shrugged, moving inexorably towards him. "The Ori are evil, you feed 'em energy by worshipping them, we fight evil... see where I'm going with this?" reaching down she grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping his backwards retreat. Plucking his helmet from his head she told him sincerely, "I am sorry."

"I renounce the Ori!" he blurted as her knife swung towards his throat. Somehow it stopped before it sliced through his skin and he continued talking, "Hallowed is, um, Thor, right?"

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Faith said disbelievingly, still holding her knife against his throat. "What?"

"I renounce the Ori," he repeated, his voice steadying. "I never really believed in them anyway, heh heh," laughing nervously, his eyes darted around the clearing. He might have renounced the Ori, but this guy still believed; Faith's eyes narrowed. "That is, I believe they exist, I'm just not certain that they have our best interests at heart... Does that make sense?"

It kinda did. Faith stared at him as she moved the knife away, assessing him as she took a careful step back. He didn't move, staring back at her with a desperately pleading look. The half-formed plan at the back of Faith's mind began adjusting radically, and for the first time she began to like the look of her odds.

"I will kill him," announced Nya, moving purposefully forward.

"No, wait," said Faith, throwing an arm across her chest to block her advance.

"He is evil," objected Nya. "He must be slain."

"He renounced the Ori, remember?" Faith defended the man, her eyes never leaving his face.

"He lies!"

"I don't think so," Faith said slowly, keeping eye contact with him. Her slaydar wasn't registering so much as a blip. "Look at him. Apart from the outfit, does he look like a soldier to you? 'Sides, we can use him."

"How?" Nya asked suspiciously.

"The ship you guys have got," Faith said to the man in reply. "There a kid onboard?"

The man blinked, "A what?"

"Little girl 'bout so big, dark hair, big eyes, name of Chaia," Faith explained. "Seen her?"

"No..." he admitted, unsure of their reaction and trying not to cringe in expectation of it.

"Damn," said Faith as Nya visibly wilted. She sighed, sheathing her knife, "Okay, lead the way. Take us to the door."

**l**

Cyril Leighton had been a watcher all his life. His family had been watchers for generations, and he had been raised knowing that he would one day take his father's place on the Inner Council. He had joined the Watchers Council at eighteen, disappointed that in Her Majesty's eyes, membership to the Council counted as his National Service. He had never been assigned an active slayer, or even a potential that had been called. When, at seventy-two, he had heard through the sources that he still maintained, that every slayer in the world had been called and Rupert Giles was rebuilding the Council, Cyril had contacted him immediately, offering him his support in return for one thing. Cyril wanted to work on the frontlines. On a Hellmouth.

Cyril got his wish, and Rupert got his support. Because of his advanced years, Cyril only accompanied the slayers on the early patrol, and he always had at least one by his side when he ventured out with them. The dear girls refused to leave him unprotected. He taught demonology to the underage ones during the weekdays, and took his turn on the school's weekend rota. He had a small flat near the campus.

Cyril Leighton was also a creature of habit, and he was dearly looking forward to his nightly cup of Horlicks and his bed as he unlocked his front door, exhausted by the night's patrol. His shoulders drooped as he closed the door behind him, his guard down now that he was home.

A black hood plunged down over his head and a needle was roughly shoved into his neck, injecting him with something. He struggled weakly for a few moments but whatever they had injected him with quickly overcame him and he succumbed to unconsciousness.

Within the hour, Cyril Leighton was being loaded onto a plane.

**l**

One arm slung around Skardhe's chest and the other hand hanging on to the arm resting across her shoulders, Liss had given up on trying to make their descent of the mountain stealthy. Skardhe was almost completely a dead weight, retaining just enough consciousness to keep placing one foot in front of the other. By her best guess, they hadn't even made it a quarter of the distance they had to cover. At this rate, they wouldn't make the cave before dawn. Skardhe stumbled and would have fallen if it wasn't for her assistance.

"Come on," she said urgently as he wavered unsteadily. "We've got to keep moving."

"Elifa," he moaned.

"Faith's gone to find her," Liss told him yet again. "She'll get her back. Now move it!"

Shakily, he stepped forward and they continued to stagger along together until Liss' sharp ears detected the sound of something moving towards them. Leading Skardhe over to a tree, she lowered him down to sit with his back against its trunk. Motioning for him to be silent, she drew her sword, keeping one hand hovering over her zat as she waited.

Several tense seconds passed and then a boy astride a horse plodded into view. Liss relaxed, recognising him.

"Arne!" she called quietly as she sheathed her sword and the boy jumped. The horse he straddled sidled skittishly as he swivelled around to peer in their direction. "That's your name, right?" Liss asked as she approached him.

"Y-yes," he answered, his eyes looking beyond her. "Is that Skardhe?"

"Yes," Liss told him, her eyes on his horse. "We need to get him back to the cave. If I pass him up to you, can you hold him in front of you?"

"Uh..." Arne said doubtfully. Skardhe was a large man. "I can try."

"Don't bother," Liss told him over her shoulder, on her way back to Skardhe, who was struggling to get to his feet. "I'll hold him and you can lead the horse."

"Uh, alright," said Arne. He dismounted. "Um, where are the others?"

"Probably at the Ori camp by now," Liss said bitterly, wishing she was with them. "Right, you hold him while I mount."

Transferring Skardhe's arm from her shoulders to Arne's, Liss eased away from the injured man, letting Arne hold him unsupported. The young boy grunted and the two began to tilt. Liss quickly grabbed them, helping Arne to hold Skardhe upright. She sighed, wanting nothing more than a large meal and the chance to sleep. Why did everything have to be so difficult?

**l**

"Faith, I am not certain this is a good idea," Nya whispered urgently as the soldier they'd captured approached the two men guarding a tunnel deep in the heart of the Ori camp. "What if he betrays us?"

The three of them had no difficulty penetrating this far without being seen. Flush on their recent victory and confident that the surrounding area held no more enemies, the Ori soldiers were indulging heavily in the alcohol the Priors had sent down. They'd seen no sign of a perimeter guard and had managed to avoid meeting anyone by simply staying clear of the noisy areas, until they'd reached the tunnel and what were possibly the only two Ori soldiers still at their post. Despite the fact that they just about outnumbered the two men, Faith got the distinct feeling that attacking them would be pushing their luck. They had radios, and if even one of the two managed to get a warning off then they'd find themselves up to their eyes in Ori soldiers, and struggling to fight their way out and down the mountain. So she'd sent their prisoner, whose name she realised suddenly she still didn't know, forward to try and draw them off.

"He's still wearing his radio. Coulda dropped us in the shit a long time ago," Faith quietly told Nya, trying to calm the edgy slayer down. "Hasn't so far..." she shrugged, "Gotta be worth a shot."

"Halstrom!" one of the two soldiers on guard greeted their prisoner loudly as he walked openly towards them. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to relieve you," the slayers' prisoner, Halstrom told them.

"Don't you want to join in the celebration?" asked the second soldier.

"I'm not much of a drinker," Halstrom shrugged. "You go."

"But the Prior ordered," the first started to object.

"What the Priors don't know can't hurt them," Halstrom interrupted smoothly. "Go on..."

The two soldiers exchanged a look as they both took a step away from the tunnel they were guarding. Like Halstrom, they'd missed the fight against the Cimmerian rebels and been stuck with sentry duty while those who hadn't enjoyed the fruits of their labour. Worse, they'd been positioned within hearing distance of the revelry and had consequently been battling their envy all night. Now, given the opportunity to participate, they took it.

"Have fun," Halstrom told them as they hurried away, taking position in front of the tunnel entrance.

As soon as the two soldiers had disappeared from sight, Faith and Nya cautiously crept into view. Nya said nothing to him when they joined him, but the glare with which she looked at him was perhaps a degree or two less murderous.

"Nice work," Faith complimented him with a clap on the shoulder that made him stagger. "You stay here while we go check it out. And Hal..." Faith's face hardened as she threatened him, "If you help the Ori in any way I'll make sure you die last. As slowly and as painfully as I can possibly make it. We clear?"

"Y-yes," stuttered Hal, cringing back from her cold stare.

Faith grinned, "Good. See ya soon!" she promised as she and Nya disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.

Halstrom gulped, moving back into a guarding stance. His eyes wandered over the familiar encampment, the distant sound of men in arms joined in celebration floating on the breeze to his ears. He'd made friends here. Not close friends, but comrades. For once in his life he'd been accepted, unquestioned, simply by being here. By being one of them. If he continued on this path then at best he'd find himself ostracised by his peers, at worst, forced to stand by while they died at these women's hands. He had no doubts that they would die. The two dark-haired women appeared to be single-mindedly devoted to the destruction of the Ori.

It was why he had thrown his lot in with them. All his life, he had privately questioned the teachings of Origin, as his father had taught him to do, and his father before him. Halstrom was the latest in a long line of village historians charged with chronicling day to day life. Those chronicles told a different tale to those in the Book of Origin. They spoke of darkness and terror, of unseen rulers with iron fists and capricious whims. Never before had he voiced his concerns, all too conscious of the outcome of such outspoken examples within his books. He had no reason to believe that the Ori had changed over their millennia long reign, no cause to think that if he spoke out against them, their retaliation would not come swiftly and fiercely. So he had kept his silence, tacitly accepting life for the way it was.

But here, in this part of the universe, the people did not bow down and submit to Origin. They fought against it, fought against Priors; an unthinkable act on Halstrom's home world. He had fought the people of this world in his time on here. Had even killed a man, an act which still preyed on his conscience. He knew the girl who had been captured by reputation alone. She was the fiercest of the fighters they had faced and speculation about her had run rampant ever since the Priors had declared her Clava after their first encounter with the native rebels.

Halstrom had never heard of a Clava before he'd been pressed into military service, and as a man who valued knowledge for its worth, he disliked not knowing more about them. The Priors said that they were destined to stand by the Orici's side, to fight for her, but the girl they had captured earlier definitely hadn't wanted to go with them. And these two, who bore signs that they too were Clava, were committed to the downfall of the Ori.

It was a cause dear to Halstrom's heart. All his life he'd longed to see the end of the Ori's rule over his people, but he'd never thought he'd live to see it. Now, standing alone in a camp full of men who had been his friends this morning, a small light of hope began to shine in the depths of his soul.

He'd never wanted to be a soldier anyway.

**l**

The tunnel had been well dug. Carved out of loose rock, it was wide and tall, supported by wooden beams. It was straight, but the slayers' sensitive eyes needed no more illumination than the light from the distant entrance to see their way. Neither Faith nor Nya felt the need to talk as they padded along its dark length, heading towards the mysterious door. Even their breaths sounded loud in the echoing confines of the tunnel.

When they reached the door, they still had enough light to see it clearly. Large and round, with two metal doors that met in the middle, it was set in a rock wall at the end of the tunnel. Faith frowned as her eyes took in the alien design, eventually coming to rest on the small plate on the rock wall next to the door. Approaching it, she waved her hand in front of it, eventually pressing her hand against it when waving got no response. Touching did.

The doors slid open to reveal a dark room, and with a cautious shared glance, Faith and Nya stepped over the threshold. Long pillars of lights flickered, revealing the contours of the room, and came on. Nya's jaw slowly dropped as her eyes roamed across the large room while Faith strolled forward, unconcerned, and picked up a small object that had been abandoned on one of the worktables. After examining it for a few seconds she tossed it back down offhandedly in favour of approaching the large cylinder in the middle of the room.

Sharply angled at either end, it was otherwise a cylindrical tube. Faith mentally estimated that it was about as wide as the inside of a Stargate, although she couldn't be sure without comparing them side by side. What interested Faith most was the wide window at one end of the tube, the end that slanted backwards. Through it she could see two chairs positioned in front of a bank of consoles and a door leading to the back of the tube. She was looking into a cockpit.

Her curiosity piqued, Faith let one hand trail along the cool metal side of the tube-ship as she walked around it, looking for a door. She found instead another hand-pad, on the side of the back of the ship. Pressing lowered the angled back until it formed a ramp, flat on the floor.

"Wicked cool," Faith commented excitedly, waiting only until the ramp had stopped moving before she stepped onto it and hurried inside.

The back had benches along each side, with what looked like lockers overhead. They could easily fit all of the slayers in there with room to spare, but Faith barely gave it a look, striding forward beyond the doors separating the back from the cockpit. She did take a moment to study the console, with its shiny buttons and dials, before she flopped into the left hand seat and the console lit up. It wasn't all that lit up, writing appeared on the window in front of her. Faith sat up, leaning forward to get a better look, but it wasn't written in any language she knew.

"What is that?" Nya asked, entering the ship behind her.

"Not a clue," Faith told her, frowning at the symbols and ignoring the slight tickling sensation at the back of her mind. "Could be start up instructions for all I know... God knows how you fly this thing."

Beneath them an engine turned over and hummed into life. Nya nervously clutched hold of the doorframe, her wide eyes meeting Faith's.

"Did you do that?" the Cimmerian slayer asked Faith.

"Think so," said Faith, reaching out to the control in front of her and gently steering left. Hovering above the ground, the ship slowly began to turn. "Yup. It was me," she confirmed, concentrating on turning the engines off. The ship dropped suddenly as the engine cut out, landing on the floor with a metallic crash.

Nya clutched the doorframe tighter. "But you touched nothing," she objected.

"Doesn't matter," Faith told her, getting up from the chair. As soon as she was standing the tickling sensation faded from her head. "'Parently you fly this thing by thinking," she said, sitting back down and staring at the writing that appeared again. Unconsciously she started to bite her thumbnail, propping one foot up on the dashboard in front of her.

"Thinking?" asked Nya, letting go of the door frame to sit in the other chair. Faith nodded, but was more interested in studying the writing in front of her than making conversation. With a sigh, Nya's attention drifted to the room beyond the window. "What is this place?" she said quietly after a while, more to herself than Faith.

"I'm not sure," Faith answered her with a shrug, looking beyond the writing for almost the first time. "But we can't let Adria get her hands on it... any of it."

"How can we stop her?" Nya asked curiously.

Faith shrugged, her mind running over options and discarding them. Maybe if they had a way to blow the place up... The writing in front of her changed, displaying several lines of red text. Two lines were flashing red, which Faith took to be a bad sign. It would be a hell of a lot easier if she understood what the ship was trying to say, she thought fiercely.

Machinery groaned and metal grated smoothly somewhere on the ship and Faith and Nya exchanged charged glances. Without a word, Nya stood, hurrying to the back to the ship to peer outside.

"Part of the ship just extended," she reported, moving to check the other side. "On both sides."

"I'm guessing that means we've got weapons," Faith said in a voice an octave higher than normal, turning back to the display. She shuddered slightly. Having a ship that could read your mind was wicked creepy, she thought to herself, straightening as Nya rejoined her. "Okay... stop me if you have a better idea, we load up the ship with everything we can carry and fly out of here..."

"How?" Nya interrupted.

Faith opened her mouth to reply and stopped as the display changed again, providing two columns to look at this time, one red and one green. The red one was flashing. Faith scowled at the window, determined to learn the language if it killed her.

"We'll take the green one," she said instead. "Whatever that is."

In reply, the door to the room slid open to reveal the dark tunnel beyond. Faith concentrated on closing it again. They didn't need anyone noticing a light at the end of the tunnel. The doors slid shut.

"We blow this place on the way out," Faith picked up her plan where she'd left off and the display changed yet again, displaying a line of red text. Below the red, words in white scrolled along. Faith glared.

"What if we blew up the tunnel instead?" suggested Nya, and the display brightened as three columns of green text appeared, the one closest to Faith pulsing slightly.

"Okay," said Faith, slapping her knees as she stood up. "We gotta plan!"

l

Halstrom shifted his weight from foot to foot as he stared stoically ahead, trying desperately not to display the nervousness he felt. Expecting his deception to be unmasked at any moment, his senses were on high alert, straining for any sign of soldiers headed his way. He listened also for the sound of footsteps approaching behind him, willing the two women he had thrown his lot in with to hurry back so that they could all be on their way.

Now that he had turned his back on the only way of existence he had ever known, he was eager to leave the life of a soldier behind him. Deep down he knew that he wouldn't be happy until he was once more surrounded by books, yet he was curious to see what the universe had in store for him now. Traditionally, those who lived without reverence to the Ori failed to flourish without their loving care but Halstrom had seen people who paid only lip-service to the tenets of Origin prosper. Not often, it was a rare occurrence when it happened, but it did happen. He had also seen those who were truly devout struck down with no intervention from the higher beings they worshipped.

Whisperings among the ranks of the soldiers the Ori had mustered had led Halstrom to the belief that this was a holy war in more ways than one. Painstakingly, he had constructed a theory based on those sourceless rumours and his own knowledge of history and Origin. He believed that the Ori were once more fighting their ancient enemy, the once-inhabitants of Ortus Mallum. Why else would the Orici have been born? How else were the natives of this galaxy able to resist Origin and the Ori? Gradually, Halstrom had come to the conclusion that this galaxy had its own higher beings protecting it, beings like this Thor.

The revelation that the Orici's Clava had no more wish to fight for her than he did had provided him with the final impetus he had needed to finally abandon Origin and service to the Ori. That, and the threat of imminent death.

Now that he had taken that final step his soul felt lighter somehow, despite his terror of being discovered as a traitor. All his life he had lived under the shadow of the Ori and their Priors, afraid to even consider sedition. He had never wondered what kind of man he would be without them, but now it was all he could think of. Providing he lived long enough to find out...

It with was thoughts like these running through his head that Halstrom stared broodingly at the shadow he cast in front of him. Wait...

Halstrom frowned. His shadow...

"Psst!"

The hiss came from behind him and he jumped, whirling around to meet the threat, his staff weapon instinctively lowering into firing position. He quickly lowered it when Nya pointed a bronze oval at him and it unfurled into a snake with an electronic chirrup. She scowled at him as she deactivated the zat, stepping aside for him to enter as Faith peered around the cockpit doors. Halstrom blinked at them, his mind unable to reconcile what he could see of the cluttered inside of the puddlejumper with what he could see of the outside. Namely, plenty of the former and none of the latter.

"What is it?" Nya asked him, exasperated with his inaction.

Halstrom blinked again, his jaw slowly dropping and Nya peered around the edge of the door to see along the side of the ship.

"Faith, you have activated the cloak," she called quietly, her low voice musical in the night.

"Good," Faith replied grimly. "I was hoping like hell we had one. Get in, Hal."

Halstrom shakily set one foot on the ramp, following it with the other. Nya's outstretched hand met his trembling one to guide him into the ship and then she quickly dropped it to hit the button that closed the ramp, brushing past him to join Faith in the cockpit. Halstrom followed her, feeling his equilibrium start to settle.

"Hang on," Faith advised, concentrating fiercely. "This is gonna be a bumpy ride."

The ship slowly finished backing out of the tunnel, almost scraping the sides at times but managing to just squeeze out. Faith was sure it'd fit through a 'Gate now; she'd noticed the small console between Nya and herself, the one that was covered in buttons marked with Stargate symbols. The little starship hovered at the entrance to the tunnel for a second before a yellow bolt of light shot away from it, down the tunnel. Nya glanced over at Faith but her eyes were distant and unfocussed as, in her mind, she saw the drone's flight and controlled it, sending it up into the tunnel's roof at almost the last possible moment.

As soon as it hit, she pulled on the controls, steering the ship up and away as fast as possible. It wasn't until lines of text and diagrams appeared on the screen that Faith slowed, gently banking to get a good view of the aftermath.

It was brutal. A light grey scar marred the side of the mountain, a livid scar in the moonlight. Of the Ori camp there was no sign. It was gone. Buried beneath a rockfall.

"Okay..." Faith said slowly. "That worked better than I thought it would."

"I thought you said it would be bumpy?" Halstrom said in a voice that only quavered slightly.

**l**

Having finally reached Skardhe's cave, Liss had just handed Skardhe to Arne when she heard the roar coming from further up the mountain. She froze, one leg lifted to swing over the horse's neck so she could slide from its back, her eyes meeting the young boy's. A charged look passed between the two while Skardhe's head nodded on his chest, both of them alarmed.

"What was that?" Liss asked Arne, deferring to his superior knowledge of their surroundings.

"It sounded like a rockfall," Arne told her as she dismounted.

Liss frowned as she took Skardhe's dead weight from the struggling boy, worrying about Faith and Nya. She hoped they hadn't been caught in the landslide, that none of the slayers she was travelling with had. If only they all had some way of keeping in communication. She had heard Faith muttering about radios earlier; she was almost certain that the Tau'ri slayer had been talking to herself, but that hadn't stopped her from overhearing. Radios would be ideal for missions like this one, providing they had enough range, but Liss couldn't see any way of getting them. Every world she had ever travelled to had been too backward to have the manufacturing capabilities needed to produce radios. She was fully aware that Langara was an exception in the galaxy, with a technology level almost equivalent to Earth's. Her education was such that given time, and a laboratory of her own, she could probably cobble together some crude radios for them to use, but it would be a difficult task and the range might not be far enough. She doubted that they'd ever spend enough time in one place for her to try. In the meantime, all she could do was make Skardhe comfortable and hope that Faith arrived soon.

She did. Much sooner than Liss expected. The young blonde slayer was in the middle of gently lowering Skardhe flat on his back onto one of the beds already made up in the cave when a commotion outside the cave made her look up sharply. Underneath the horse's whinny and Arne's curses she could hear the quiet note of machinery at work and dread struck at her heart. Throwing another blanket over Skardhe to warm him, Liss grabbed her zat'nik'tel from her belt and her sword from its scabbard and strode outside, hurrying to put herself in between the men and possible danger.

Instead she saw a large metal cylinder settling on the ground while Arne struggled to calm his panicking horse. Barely sparing the boy a glance, Liss walked warily forward, towards the small ship, her weapons held at the ready. As soon as the ship had parked in the small clearing, its engines cut out and the end facing them began to lower.

Liss jumped back to avoid being crushed, keeping her zat'nik'tel aimed at the ship. The door continued to lower into a ramp, revealing first Nya's head and then the rest of her. Liss' jaw dropped, but she snapped it back up when Faith walked into view through a set of doors behind Nya.

"Faith..." she said, her voice half sigh, half question.

"You expectin' anyone else?" Faith asked her with a nonchalant shrug, walking to the end of the ramp and jumping off to stand next to Liss and admire the ship she had stolen. "You like?"

"I like!" Liss admitted. "How... no, _where_?"

Halstrom picked that moment to sidle around the puddlejumper's bulkhead doors and into sight and Liss abruptly stopped talking, one lip curling up in a silent snarl as she brought her sword up, visibly swelling with anger. Faith's hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Take a chill pill," the senior slayer advised. "An' meet Hal. Don't kill him, he's on our side."

"What _happened _up there?" Liss demanded, the air that had swollen her escaping with an explosive gust of air as she spoke.

"Long story," Faith told her, her gaze falling on Arne. Faith scowled at him, "I thought I told you to go back to Brock?"

"It's a good job he'd didn't. I'd still be trying to get here," Liss said in Arne's defence before she turned the subject back to the man she was glaring at. "What do you mean, he's on our side?"

"Just what I said," Faith told her. "He renounced the Ori, he's on our side. Don't kill him, he might come in handy." She clapped Liss on the shoulder, looking around the clearing, "Where's Skar?"

"Faith will not let me kill him," Nya said dejectedly to Liss, sending a darting glance full of daggers Halstrom's way. Halstrom cringed back.

"He's lying down," Liss replied to Faith, her eyes never leaving Halstrom's. She made no move to put her weapons away either. "But Faith?" she glanced at her. "I don't know what else I can do for him."

"We'll have him with Val in no time," Faith reassured her. "We gotta spaceship now. Keep up."

"But..." said Liss. "Faith..."

"Liss, we don't have time for buts," Faith told her bluntly. "Adria's on her way here. Grab Skardhe and let's go. Nya, Hal, clear a space for him to lie down. Kid," she gestured at Arne, "Hop in. I'll give you a hand with Skar," she finished, once more talking to Liss.

"Why are we running?" Liss asked Faith quietly as the two of them walked towards the cave. "Why don't we stay and fight her?"

"She kicked our asses a couple of days ago and you're ready for round two already?" Faith replied just as quietly. "We're split all over the planet and she's bringing God knows how many Priors and soldiers with her. We've got a chance to rescue these people and get off this planet before she arrives, but only if we're quick!"

"Can't _he _tell you what forces she's bringing?" asked Liss, jerking her head behind her in reference to Hal as they entered the small cave.

"Nope," Faith said succinctly. "Turns out Priors don't tell their soldiers shit. He knows how many of 'em are here, not how many are coming."

"How many are here?" Liss wondered curiously, knowing she'd regret asking.

"Too many," Faith told her, looking down at Skardhe, unconscious on his paillasse. "Move him on the mat?" she suggested. "I'll grab his feet, you grab his head."

Liss agreed by moving to Skardhe's head and bending to grab the two corners of the paillasse. Faith grabbed her end and the two slayers lifted, resuming their conversation.

"What about Elifa?" Liss asked. "I thought you were going to rescue her, not bring back..." Liss hesitated, unable to find the words to adequately describe Halstrom. "_Him_," she said finally, injecting the syllable with an unhealthy dose of venom.

"We were too late," Faith said, shuffling out of the cave backwards. "Priors had already taken her up to the ship. And his name is Hal. Play nice, he's gonna be useful."

"How?" Liss said scornfully and Faith grinned evilly. Her face sinister in the moonlight. Liss found herself grinning back, a humourless rictus filled with predatory emotions and not much else. "How?" she repeated eagerly.

Faith glanced upward in reply, at the night sky, before she turned her head to peer backwards over her shoulder in order to see where she was going. "What the hell?" she said, stumbling as she stared at her small spaceship.

Liss craned her neck to peer around Faith, curious to see what had upset the older slayer and eager to see if it was Halstrom. It wasn't. Arne had almost finished coaxing his horse inside the ship, although he had stopped at Faith's low exclamation, dismay written across his face.

"Of course he brings his horse," Faith said to herself, resuming her backward shuffle. "Okay, kid. On your head be it," she told Arne as her boot scraped over the metal ramp. "If it makes a mess, you're cleaning it up."

It didn't take long to settle Skardhe on the low padded bench Nya and Halstrom had cleared. With the horse inside it was a bit of a tight squeeze when they closed the rear hatch, but they all crowded into the cockpit and left the unconscious Skardhe to suffer the horse alone. Nya and Liss jostled to stand as far away from Halstrom as possible, and from Arne; the young teen smelt like his horse! Faith and Liss danced around the pilot's chair, Liss eager to defer to Faith and Faith determined to put Liss in the driving seat.

"For God's sake, sid'down," Faith snapped finally and Liss promptly sat. The bank of consoles in front of her lit up at once and she recoiled as writing slowed across the forward window, before sitting forward to eagerly read the text.

"_Where _did you find this ship?" she demanded with avid interest.

"No time!" Faith said bluntly. "You gotta learn how to fly this thing."

"Me?" squeaked Liss.

"Yeah, you," confirmed Faith. "You gotta get Skardhe to Val."

"Then what?" asked Liss. "Attack the mothership? Do we even have weapons?"

"Yes, but no," said Faith. "You're gonna fly the ship like a shuttle, between Mallie an' Kay, shiftin' the slowest people with Mallie to Gunnarr's cave, ready to pile on through the 'Gate the second Mallie's lot arrives. Don't wait for us," Faith glance took in both Nya and Halstrom. "We'll meet you back on the other planet."

"What are you going to do?" Liss wanted to know.

Faith grinned again, just as evilly as before. "Glad you asked," she told Liss. "Gotta favour to ask. Meantime, let's get this bird in the air before the Ori find us. Concentrate on turning the engines on," she coached the blonde slayer. "Ignore what it says in front of you."

"Power at seventy-three percent," Liss read off the display in a monotone. "Engines ready, weapons system ready, guidance system ready, all systems operational..."

"You can read that?" demanded Faith, frustration and relief mixed together in her voice as she pointed to the writing on the screen.

"Of course," Liss told her calmly, reaching forward to flip a switch before she tentatively took hold of the controls in front of her. "It's a dialect of Ancient. Jonas used to teach a class–"

"You're teaching me," Faith decreed. "Scratch that, you're teaching _all _of us."

**l**

Under her bush, Kay jerked awake as metal-booted feet tramped past her hiding place, wiping the drool from her chin. She hadn't meant to sleep, or even close her eyes. What had she missed?

Knuckling the sleep from her eyes, she reached for her zat with her other hand, ready to find out where the soldiers were going. She silently tracked them to the nearest ring platform, and quickly lost them when they stepped inside and the rings activated around them, sending them somewhere far away.

Kay scratched her nose as she frowned. The Ori hadn't sent down any soldiers to replace the patrol they'd just pulled from duty. What had happened to cause them to leave the Chappa'ai unguarded? It didn't make any sense... Still worried and still frowning, Kay hurried back to the cave to let the others know what had happened.

**l**

Elifa was sitting in the room they had taken her to, staring hungrily out of the window at the white, green and blue globe hanging in the night sky that they had told her was her world. She had tried everything she could think of to escape, but the furniture was securely fixed to the floor, and the door would not open for her, although it had for the Prior. She had even tried to break the glass in the window, a larger pane than she had ever seen in her life, but it did not shatter, leading her to believe it wasn't really glass. She didn't know what it was, but it wasn't breakable, even for one of her strength. So now she sat and waited for the Orici of whom she had heard so much from the Priors, conserved her energy by looking out of the window and longing for home.

For the wind whispering through her hair and the leaves on the trees, the feel of sunlight on her upturned face, for the smell of wood smoke, and especially for her father's comforting presence. She was desperately worried about him. The last time she had seen him, he was badly injured. She had been captured by the Priors before she could go to him. All her life, he had been her guiding light, steadying her, especially after Thor had called her to His service at a time when her people had lived in comfort and security. She had not understood why she was a Valkyrie with no foe to defeat. She had grown up on the battle-hymns of the Valkyries of old, they were the lullabies her father had sung her to sleep with; she knew that her dreams heralded the enemy she must face. But they were not to be found. Her father had not scoffed at her fears, had not dismissed them. Instead, he had sought out battle-seasoned warriors, bringing them to the private sanctuary of their mountainside home in order to better train her for what she would meet. He had counselled patience, and trust in Thor. Surely He would not call her for no reason. She had come to see that endless period of waiting as a gift from the Gods. Ultimately it had given her the time she needed to train, to prepare for the Ori's arrival. Yet despite that boon, she had failed. Failed her Father, failed her people, and failed her Gods.

She had been captured and brought onboard what she had been told was a ship, although it resembled no ship she had ever heard of. It was made of metal, not wood, and she doubted that it had sails. The Prior who had been here when she had awoken from the blow that had knocked her unconscious had told her that the ship was in the void between worlds. It wasn't all he had told her.

In a stentorian tone, he had informed her that she was Clava, not Valkyrie. That her destiny was to serve their Orici. Apparently her dreams had not heralded danger for her people, but the joyous arrival of Origin. All she must do was accept the truth of his world and the glory that was Origin and she would experience rapture, even ascend at the right hand of the Orici herself.

Elifa had refused to believe him, and he had retreated rapidly from the room under her prowling advance. She had vented her anger on the furnishings, which had turned out to be far less satisfying and much more frustrating than she had anticipated, before pacing the meagre length of the room until she was finally calm enough to sit.

Since then she had remained still, brooding thoughts crowding her head, just when she needed to focus most. She needed to find a way back to her world. It had to be possible, she'd been brought here. Perhaps, if she escaped this room and found her way to the top deck of the ship, she could jump back to Cimmeria? It didn't look that far away.

The door opened and Elifa blurred into action, heading for it. The Prior who stepped through was quick however. His staff glowed, his arm moved and Elifa flew backwards into the wall and stayed there, pinned against it with her feet dangling in the air. It wasn't an uncomfortable position, although something was digging into her back, but she couldn't move and Elifa struggled against the invisible forces the Prior was exerting.

"You cannot resist," intoned the Prior, his arm outstretched and his staff still glowing.

"And yet, I do," Elifa replied snidely.

"The men who fight with you are dead," the Prior told her. "Your father is dead. You have been here the whole time and yet... How did you do it?"

"What are you talking of?" asked Elifa, frowning.

"Are there other Clava on your homeworld?" demanded the Prior.

"I am not Clava!" snapped Elifa, renewing her struggles. "I am Valkyrie!"

"How many of you are there?" the Prior's tone was commanding.

"There can be only one!" Elifa told him. "One girl, called to fight the forces of darkness, to defeat evil in Thor's name!"

"There are many Clava, you are merely one," the Prior informed her in a supercilious tone. "The Orici comes to judge if you are worthy to serve her. Now, who is trying to help you?"

**l**

"Faith, I'm not sure this is a good idea," said Liss, making one last-ditch attempt to change Faith's mind as she pried loose the metal cover of the control panel of the rings.

Faith stayed resolute, "Best one we got."

It hadn't taken long for Liss to learn how to fly the ship. The controls, like so much else of the ship, were telepathically augmented, so that as long as you believed that by pulling them back towards you would raise the ship's nose and gain altitude, it would. Plus, she had the added benefit of being able to actually read what the ship was telling her. Once Faith was sure that she wasn't about to crash, she'd ordered Liss to land near a set of rings they'd just passed. Liss had reluctantly obeyed, protesting that it was a bad idea the whole way. Instead of arguing with her, Faith explained her plan in a few short words.

Liss thought it sounded like an even worse idea.

Faith refused to be budged. If necessary, she was prepared to take the ship and head back up the mountain to the rockslide. They'd seen sporadic bright flashes in that area from the air, as the Priors onboard the mothership in orbit sent soldiers to investigate. Fortunately, Liss had the ship's cloak engaged but Faith wasn't afraid to stir up the hornet's nest in the hope of getting close enough to use the rings to transport herself up to the ship when additional troops poured into the area. She'd go it alone if she had to.

Liss agreed to help, but still didn't like it.

Faith told her she didn't have to like it.

Things went downhill from there and the two slayers were heading towards a Mexican standoff when Nya intervened, pointing out that they were wasting time they could ill afford to lose. That shut them both up, and brings us to about where we came in.

Faith quickly ran through the plan again while Liss fiddled with the rings, "Hal goes up first. Thirty seconds later, Ny and I follow. That should give him enough time to get the guards' backs turned."

"Um... how long is a second again?" Halstrom asked nervously, trying not to quake in his boots as he stood in the middle of the ring platform.

"One... two... three..." Faith marked the seconds for him, keeping the Mississippis in her head. She didn't have time to get dragged into an explanation of what the Mississippi was and why its name was used to keep time.

Halstrom frowned, worry in his eyes. "That's a long time," he said anxiously.

"You'll do fine," Faith told him. She stepped back as metal rings shot up around him, waving goodbye with her fingertips as a bright flash filled the clearing and Halstrom disappeared, the rings retracting back down into their casing.

Drawing their weapons, Nya and Faith stepped into the metal ring. Liss' hand gently grabbed Faith's arm as she passed her and Faith stopped to look at her.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Liss warned.

"Really?" asked Faith, one eyebrow climbing. "Or do you just wanna come with?"

Liss' answering flush was clear to see, even in the moonlight, and her hand dropped from Faith's arm as if she had been scalded. Faith's body language softened; she sympathised with the young slayer. Liss was just eager to slay some evil, courtesy of her Sineya instincts. She couldn't help it, it was the slayer in her. On top of that, she was probably itching to get some payback for Jonas. That was the main reason Faith wasn't taking her with them, not just the fact that knowing the language, she was the ideal person to fly the spaceship. Faith couldn't afford to risk a slayer who might decide to take off on her own private vendetta. Not this time. At least with the news that Chaia wasn't onboard the mothership, she could be reasonably sure that Nya would stay with her. She didn't have time to get to the others for back-up, the ominous feeling deep in her gut was getting hollower by the minute, and they were already spread too thinly. She couldn't be in two places at once, all she could do was assign responsibilities and hope like hell they all got off this planet before Adria arrived.

"I need you here," Faith said gently to Liss. "You're the only one who can read what the ship's saying and we've come too far to back out now. We've gotta get everyone off the planet before Adria gets here."

"I know," Liss told her with a nod. "I know." But knowing didn't make it any easier.

"Soon as everyone's at the 'Gate, get gone," Faith instructed, back to business. "We'll meet you on the other side."

"Good luck," Liss told them, crouching down to activate the ring platform.

"See ya soon," Faith promised before the rings whisked her away.

**l**

Hal had done his job well. The two guards on duty had their backs to Nya and Faith when the two slayers arrived, more concerned about Halstrom as he wriggled and jerked on the floor, looking for all intents and purposes as if he was having a fit, than they were about who was approaching them from behind. Big mistake. With just two sword strokes, one from Faith and one from Nya, they were dead. A head rolled across the floor and into the hallway as their lifeless bodies collapsed onto Halstrom.

Nya chased after it while Halstrom struggled to shift the corpses pinning him to the floor. Faith helped him, lifting a body with each hand and turning to throw them into the centre of the rings. Halstrom turned green when bones snapped on impact with the floor, but gamely rolled to his knees and shakily stood. The head followed the bodies, Faith grabbed it from Nya when she re-entered the room, and activated the rings, sending the evidence planet-side. There wasn't much she could do about the blood, except hope that whoever found the room would assume an injured soldier had come through and the two guards had helped him to whatever kind of hospital they had onboard. It was a long shot, but it the best she could do.

"Where now?" Faith demanded.

"Uh..." Halstrom stuck his head out of the door and looked up and down the hallway, trying to get his bearings. "This way."

Less than a minute after they'd entered the room, the slayers were gone.

**l**

Deep under Cheyenne Mountain, in the main infirmary of a base that didn't officially exist, the charge nurse on duty looked up from her game of solitaire as whimpers reached her ears. Across the infirmary, one of the patients in her care was tossing and turning on their bed, caught in the throes of a nightmare. Karen Olsen didn't need to look at the bed list to know who it was. Doctor Wilson.

It was no wonder she was having nightmares. Apparently her team, SG-13, had been with SG-1 when they'd faced the Ori's Orici. She was being held overnight because she'd sustained a slight concussion. Karen noted the time, three forty-five, and resolved to keep an eye on her. If it looked like her nightmare was getting worse, she'd go wake the doctor on call and get him to authorise a sedative.

_Jool hung in space. She wore no space suit, nothing to protect her from the cold vacuum, but that didn't worry her. What worried her was that she couldn't seem to move, no matter how she tried. In front of her was the Earth, and it was burning. Ori ships were studded against Earth's fiery background, but she had no way to reach them, no way to fight them._

_Willow Rosenberg's voice floated through her mind as the witch asked the eternal question, "Are you ready to be strong?"_

"_Yes," Jool answered now as then, as she always would, her voice clear and sure._

_The dark clouds in Earth's atmosphere twisted and shifted. They roiled beneath the Ori attack, distorting as they, it, _she_ stepped away from Earth, scattering the Ori ships as she moved towards Jool._

"_You ready to fight?" Faith asked her, emerging from the darkness, her body barely clothed in clinging black leather, her hand holding a black version of the slayer-scythe._

"_Yes!" Jool was more than ready, she was eager and willing._

"_Hold on," Faith told her, still moving towards her._

"_Are you okay?" Jool asked her quickly. "We're trying to find you."_

"_Five by five," replied Faith, looming closer. "I'm coming to you."_

_As Faith reached out to take hold of Jool's shoulder, the moon hove into view behind her, gilding her with a silvery aura. Jool flinched back, throwing her arm up and closing her eyes against the bright light, and felt herself falling. Panicking, her eyes snapped open as she hit the ground. A pale thin balding man with glasses was leaning over her, gently supporting a slice of cheese in his cupped hands._

"_The cheese is dead," he announced sorrowfully. "Long live the cheese."_

_An invisible blow struck him and he sailed out of sight. Jool pushed herself up onto one arm, picking herself up and taking in every detail of the marble room in case something was significant. Flames flickered inside the symbol of Origin mounted on a dais at one end of the room and Jool's eyebrows rose. Definitely significant._

_The flames jumped forward, and became Adria. The Orici stood confidently at the top of the stairs, the black-haired slayer who had attacked Jool – Deama her mind obligingly supplied – one step behind her, her face impassive._

"_You're no match for me," Adria told her, flames curling lovingly around her body. "You won't even make it past Deama. Why try? Join me, and you too can ascend by my side!"_

"_No thanks," Jool told her grimly. She charged towards Adria, aware that she was making the same mistake as last time but unable to help herself, and wishing desperately that she had a weapon. Adria flickered like a flame as Jool reached her, twisting out of reach. Jool's momentum carried her forward, into the Ori symbol and through it into what lay beyond._

_Strong hands caught her as she stumbled, steadying her and holding her upright. She looked up into familiar hazel eyes and her stomach melted. Jon shook her gently._

"_Snap out of it, Doc," he insisted. "We gotta keep moving."_

"_I-I know," replied Jool. "I'm fine. Just a little dizzy."_

_They were in the corridor of an Ori mothership and they weren't alone. The whole team was there, Oz and Andrew too, and they were all heavily armed, dressed in full black battle dress uniform. _

"_Okay...?" Jon asked slowly, part question, part encouragement._

_Jool nodded and he let go of her. She felt the loss right down to her toes._

"_Good," he said, stepping back and hefting his P-90. "Let's move out."_

_Jool had only taken a few steps when she heard two sets of footsteps approaching them. She glanced at Jon and he had heard them too. He motioned for them to take defensive positions, and the team flattened themselves against the walls of the hallway, taking advantage of every bit of cover they could find._

_Adria walked around the corner, Deama following closely behind her. Jool's heart sank, how had she found her so quickly? This time, Adria didn't waste time on words, attacking immediately with a gesture that sent Jool flying backwards while Deama surged forwards._

_SG-13 opened fire, but Adria effortlessly deflected the bullets, protecting Deama as well as herself, and Deama quickly reached them. Oz dropped his gun as he began to transform and Deama grabbed his head, twisting sharply as Andrew jumped on her back._

_Oz's neck snapped and Deama let go of his body to deal with Andrew, who was trying to strangle her. Jool barrelled past them to attack Adria, who sent her into the wall with a wave of her hand. Deama ducked, pulling Andrew off her at the same time and letting go of him. His velocity sent him down the hallway as Jool rolled with her fall, easily rising to her feet. The butt of Jon's rifle hit the back of Deama's head as she rose, and the blow dropped the renegade slayer to the floor._

_Adria's eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring. Her fingers twisted and Jon's leg snapped. He cried out, sinking to one knee as he clutched his injured leg. Adria's other hand came up to throw Jool back again and Deama rose to her feet with a knife in her hand._

_Jool hit the wall again, and felt something crunch in her back when she did. Her body was numb before gravity pulled her down. Unable to move, all she could do was watch as Deama plunged her knife into Jon's chest._

_Andrew hit Deama, knocking her off balance. The slayer rocked, grabbing hold of him and ignoring Jon as he slumped to the floor, the knife still buried in his chest. Across the length of the hall, Jool's eyes met Jon's resolute brown ones._

_Deama bludgeoned Andrew to death, while Adria watched patiently and there wasn't a thing Jool could do to stop her. She couldn't even lift her little finger. Jon tried his hardest, clawing his way over to them inch by agonising inch as blood flecked his lips. Jool's heart bled for him. He was still a foot away when Andrew finally died._

_Deama straightened, turning towards Jon and Jool's heart stopped._

"_No!" she cried out. "Jon!"_

_He waited until Deama was bending over him, within striking range, before he acted. Tearing the knife out of his chest, he stabbed the slayer in the side. Jool couldn't help admiring his aim. He was certain to have perforated Deama's liver. The rogue slayer would be dead in just a few minutes._

_Adria snarled and Jon was telekinetically thrown headfirst into the wall. His sightless eyes met Jool's one last time before she looked away, focussed far beyond her._

_Deama stood shakily, and then crumpled to her knees. Hot, smooth hands grasped Jool's face, tilting her head back to look Adria in the eye. The Orici's eyes were on fire, drawing Jool deeper into them._

"_You should have joined me when you had the chance," hissed Adria._

_She jerked Jool's head sharply and Jool felt something else snap, her neck, before the darkness rose up and swallowed her down. One of Adria's flaming eyes followed her, expanding until it was the size of a planet, of Earth... still burning. The black dragged her deeper, the light of the burning Earth fading in front of her eyes. She couldn't move, couldn't even speak. As much as she tried to resist, she was helpless to intervene. Trapped._

"_We're Slayers," Faith's voice sounded in the void and Jool stopped struggling to listen. "Chosen to fight evil, to stop it from spreading and we will _not _bow down before Priors. We won't worship the Ori, and we will never, ever, join Adria."_

_Yes...! Jool found herself silently agreeing with every word._

"_You gotta be ready," Faith's voice whispered in her ear._

_I _am_, Jool thought with every fibre of her being. I am!_

"_Then fight!" urged Faith, and suddenly Jool was free._

_Shooting towards Earth, towards the ships scorching her, as a stream of images flashed before her eyes; Faith, dead on a floor, the gory holes in her chest still sluggishly pumping blood out onto the floor: Cameron Mitchell, bloody and broken as he lolled in Colonel Emerson's chair, the bridge around him deserted and burning: Teal'c, a grey streak in his hair, stretched out on his front in shallow water, his eyes shut and his face lax: her guardian, the closest thing she had to a father, blazing in the middle of an elaborate stone trough filled with flames: women, people she recognised as magic users and slayers, watchers and even demons, all dying the same way: Vala weeping: soft brown sightless eyes... and behind the images the Earth burnt._

_The wind of her passage was roaring in her ears; the flames were growing brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter. Her body tingled as the fire licked at her skin. She gasped for one last breath as the Ori ship she had targeted raced towards her, bracing herself for the impact..._

Jool's eyes flew open as she jerked upright in bed. She choked back the scream rising in her throat as she recognised the SGC infirmary during the night shift and it turned into a deep hacking cough. One that was followed by several more as she struggled to gulp air into her lungs, adrenaline coursing through her body as her mind raced to make sense of her dream.

A familiar face was standing beside her bed, her hand pressed over her heart and her eyes wide. Karen Olsen, she remembered the name.

"But," said Karen, her face lax with shock. "But I just gave you a sedative."

"Last thing I needed," Jool told her, swivelling to dangle her legs off the edge of her hospital bed and drop her head into her hands. She sighed into them, a long juddering sigh, before she looked up again.

"Palmer awake?" she asked.

"H-he was," Karen told her, still shocked.

"Good," sighed Jool, standing up and taking the canula out of her hand. She pressed down on the entry wound to discourage any bleeding. "I need to get discharged."

"But," objected Karen. "But..."

She kept on saying but. Even after Jool had left.

**l**

Faith, Nya and Halstrom moved quickly through the ship, meeting little resistance. Halstrom led the way in his battle-scorched armour, while Nya covered him and Faith brought up the rear. They left a trail of bodies in their wake but managed to reach their destination, a set of doors, without triggering an alarm.

It was a very specific set of doors. It led into a room that Halstrom knew was set aside for the use of the Orici's Clava. He had never been inside, for a man to do so would be sacrilege. The Ori would surely strike down any man who tried. Or so the stories went. He was about to test that theory.

Halstrom pressed the door controls and the door slid open, revealing a Prior with his back to them, his staff glowing as he held a blonde teenaged girl pressed up against the wall across the room with his outstretched hand and his mind. Nya didn't hesitate, stepping around Halstrom to plunge her sword deep into the Prior's body. The light from his staff flickered and died, and the blonde girl fell to the floor. Leaving her sword where it was, Nya moved closer to the Prior, catching him as he fell and drawing her knife across his throat.

Faith pushed her way into the room to help the girl to her feet, pushing back the wave of déjà vu that swept over her as she remembered the girl's face from the dream that had tumbled her into this life.

"I cannot open the door in here," the girl warned from the floor, throwing up a hand to prevent Nya and Halstrom from following Faith. "Do not enter."

"You Elifa?" Faith asked, grabbing her outstretched hand and helping her to her feet. Elifa nodded, flexing the hand Faith had held with a thoughtful frown. "I'm Faith," Faith introduced herself, and jerked a thumb behind her, "That's Nya and Hal. Your dad, Skardhe, asked us to come get you."

"Technically..." interrupted Halstrom.

"Shut up, Hal," Faith advised, cutting him off.

Elifa's face brightened with hope, "My father lives?"

"He's hanging in there," Faith told her. "Not gonna lie to you, he's not good."

"Uh..."

"Hal, shut up!" snapped Faith.

Halstrom shut up. He fired his staff weapon instead, successfully gaining everyone's attention as a dead soldier dropped to the floor in the corridor outside. A klaxon began to blare and the slayers winced.

"Damn!" swore Faith. She offered Elifa her sword, "You ready to fight?"

"Always," Elifa vowed, accepting the sword. She was surprised by the weight and its point dipped for a moment before she adjusted her grip.

"Let's go," said Faith.

**l**

The sky was just beginning to lighten and the stars were fading into the blue as Liss gently landed the ship on the slope outside Gunnarr's cave, not more than a few minutes after she had sent Faith, Nya and the Ori traitor up to the mothership. She deactivated the ship's systems, but left the cloak running. Quickly standing, she moved into the rear compartment.

"Arne, get that horse out of here," she said impatiently, squeezing past to bend over Skardhe's still form. He was still alive. For how long that would last, she couldn't tell.

On guard at the cave entrance, Dago was astonished when a room that wasn't there slowly revealed itself and a boy he didn't recognised backed a horse out of it. The boy and horse were followed by two people he did recognise. One of the blonde girls that had gone with the brunette who'd talked Ursula into running off to find Stein's pack of survivors. She was carrying Skardhe, the crazy old hermit who lived up the mountain and liked to scare folks with his predications of doom and gloom. Predictions that had ultimately come true, but Dago didn't bother to think of that.

The lad, Jem, slipped through the tunnel entrance, alerted by Dago's hiss of warning. Boy was still yawning himself awake, but he did it quietly, easing down next to Dago to peer over the rocks that protected the cave entrance. He recognised the girl at once, and popped up.

"Jem," Liss said gratefully, pleased to see him. "Where's Val? I've got another patient for her."

"Inside," Dago told her with an acerbic sniff that spoke volumes, reluctantly revealing himself.

"She's asleep," Jem added. "She's been up most of the night with Gunnarr's wife."

"Sleep?" said Liss, brushing past them to enter the cave. "Who's got time to sleep? Val!"

Crumpled and dishevelled, her clothes stained with unidentifiable liquids, Val staggered into the chamber, her eyes bleary. Taking in the situation at once she hurried to Liss. Liss met her halfway, and the two disappeared into the dark recesses of the cave, Liss still gently holding Skardhe.

Dago and Jem looked at one another.

"I'll wake Gunnarr," Dago said with a shrug. "If he's not already awake."

"I'll go find Kay," said Jem as the old man stumped off.

"No need," said Kay, entering the cave with her fingers pinched over the bridge of her nose. Blood trailed down from her nostrils and one rivulet reached as far as her chin. "Who left a cloaked ship outside the cave? I ran straight into it! And who's the boy with the horse?"

"I don't know," Jem told her honestly. "Liss just arrived."

"Liss?" Kay's ginger eyebrows rose. "Where's Faith? And the others?"

"I," said Jem.

"Don't know," Kay finished with him. "How about where Liss is?"

"I'm right here," said Liss, entering the cave's first chamber to face Kay. "We haven't got much time so I'll make it quick. Mallie's on her way here with the rest of the survivors. She's not too far away, I saw them on the way here. They'd be here a lot quicker, but they've got people on foot, which is slowing them down. I'm going to go meet them and try to bring the slowest here, so be prepared for refugees."

"Who was that man?" asked Jem. "The one you were carrying."

"His name's Skardhe," Liss told them, heading for the cave exit. "He's the father of this world's slayer and the leader of a resistance cell up the mountain. Val thinks she can stabilise him for a trip through the wormhole in the ship."

"Up the mountain?" frowned Kay, following her. Jem fell in behind her. "Who's the boy outside? Where did you find the ship?"

"I didn't," said Liss, striding towards the ship. "Faith did. Arne! Meet Kay and Jem." The boy waved at them, stroking his horse's neck.

"Where is Faith?" asked Kay, seriously worried as Liss began stowing the objects that littered the small ship. "And Nya? You've mentioned Mallie..." Liss hesitated, grimacing. Dread pooled in the pit of Kay's stomach, "What?"

"Faith's..." Liss sighed, refusing to meet Kay's eyes. "Faith's gone after Skardhe's daughter."

"The slayer?" Kay asked quickly and Liss nodded.

"She took Nya with her," Liss added. "She said to tell you that she'll meet us on the other planet."

"Where," said Kay, her voice cold and serious. "Are they?"

"We don't have time..." Liss prevaricated, running out of space to store things and looking around the puddlejumper helplessly for somewhere to put the glowing orange crystal she held with both hands.

"Make time!" Kay ordered crisply.

Liss sank down onto the bench, her eyes meeting Kay's guiltily. She tried one last time to evade Kay's question, saying weakly, "Adria is coming."

Kay tried hard not to let her frustration at the setback show on her face or in her body. She knew she failed by the look on Liss' face and the flicker of fear in Jem's eyes. Her jaw set tenaciously and she straightened her spine.

"Where is Faith?" she repeated.

"She made me send them to the mothership," Liss confessed.

"_What_?" Kay and Jem spoke at the same time.

Liss winced, but stood. "We really don't have time for this," she told them. "Adria **is** on her way."

Kay stepped onto the ship's metal ramp. "I'm not leaving until you tell me everything."

"What?" asked Jem, blinking in surprise.

"But I don't know everything!" wailed Liss, close to tears. Kay hurried to her side, squeezing her shoulder sympathetically. Liss looked up into her eyes, biting her lower lip anxiously.

"We'll start with what you do know," Kay told her gently. "Come on, you said we don't have much time. You can teach me how to fly this time."

Jem jumped onboard and the two slayer turned to look at him. "I'm coming too," he said quickly.

"Take the horse," Arne called out, having followed every word of the conversation. "He's of more use there than here. He's fresher."

"Bring him onboard," Kay told Jem. "As quickly as possible."

"Me?" squeaked Jem. He cleared his throat, lowering his voice. "I don't do horses."

Kay's glare convinced him otherwise.

**l**

The hallways were filled with soldiers. Faith, Nya, Halstrom and Elifa were forced closer and closer together until they were fighting back to back at times. Faith lost count of how many she'd killed, the faces blending together into a endless parade of bodies in front of her. Their swords gave Nya and Elifa a definite advantage, extending their reach beyond the soldiers', while Faith relied on a pair of zats and her knives to get the job done Even so, they couldn't go on like this.

"We there yet?" Faith yelled over the insistent klaxon, still blaring its warning.

"It's not much further," Halstrom called back.

They reached a junction, still fighting for their lives. Fought their way around it, only to be confronted with the sight of another Prior, lying in wait for them, a platoon of soldiers at his back, ready to defend him with their lives. The battle died down. Nya was the last to fall back into a defensive position, taking advantage of the lull to kill the soldier closest to her.

"Halstrom..." the Prior chided sorrowfully. "What have you done?"

"What you all should have done a long time ago," Faith answered for Hal. "Seen the light. The Ori aren't really Gods. They don't even ascend their followers. Die in their service an' you're dead. No coming back."

"Lies!" cried the Prior. "Heed not unbelievers lest they turn you from the path of righteousness!"

"Shut it, Scarface," Faith told him.

The Prior swelled angrily, his face turning an unhealthy shade of greyish-purple. For a moment Faith found herself wondering if he was about to drop dead of a heart attack.... not that she'd care. But it would make her life easier.

She took advantage of his indignation to continue talking, "The Priors have lied to you your whole lives. _We_," she gestured at Elifa, Nya and herself, "Are not Clava."

"That's right," Elifa agreed, a bloodthirsty grin spreading over her face as she mentally gauged the distance between her and the Prior.

"We're Slayers," Faith continued as if she hadn't heard her. "Chosen to fight evil, to stop it from spreading, and we will _not _bow down before Priors, especially one that reeks as badly as you," Faith informed the Prior, who was somehow still swelling furiously. "We won't worship the Ori. We'll kill anyone who does. And we will never, not while there's a breath in my body will we ever join Adria, your beloved Orici," sneered Faith before she lowered her voice to a more intimate tone, taking a step towards the Prior as she confided, "One day, I'm gonna slay her."

"Kill them!" screeched the Prior, his face almost red with rage, and the soldiers surged forward.

**l**

"What do you mean, Faith went up to the mothership with Nya?" Mallie demanded anxiously as she expertly backed the horse out of the small ship the others had arrived in. Jem watched from the safety of the cockpit (he'd already been kicked once) and admired.

"Just that," Kay told her. "She said she'd meet us on the other planet."

Mallie snorted derisively. "Yeah, right," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "What's the plan?"

Liss and Kay exchanged a loaded look and then Kay admitted, "We don't have one yet."

"You do not have a plan..." Mallie said slowly, her face blank as she handed the horse over to Brock, who mounted easily. She turned to face Kay and Liss as behind her, Ursula marshalled the first group to travel in the ship into order. "Then why the hell are you telling me this?" Mallie demanded, stomping back up the metal ramp.

"We're working on one," Liss protested defensively. She glanced at Kay, "We just haven't worked out all the details yet."

"We're following Faith's plan," said Kay. "For now."

"Come with us," Liss invited. "You can help us make a new one."

"What about me?" asked Jem.

"We need as much space as possible," Liss told him, grimacing.

"Why do you not stay with Brock and Ursula while we go?" suggested Mallie. "Someone should stay with them."

"Do I have to steer a horse?" Jem asked warily.

"You can ride with me lad," Brock told him, leaning forward to pat his horse's neck. "Fire is fresh. He can easily carry two the short distance that remains to the portal."

"Perfect," decreed Mallie, clapping her hands. "We will be back before you know it, Jem, and then you can ride in the ship."

Jem gulped, staring at the powerful horse. He barely saw the powerful warrior sitting astride it, he was so nervous. "Alright..." he said in a small voice, wondering how he went about getting up on the horse's back. He suspected that Brock had made it look deceptively simple, and rightly so.

Brock nudged his mount forward, reaching down to grab Jem's out-flung warding hand and haul him up behind him. Jem caught sight of the ground below and held tightly on to Brock, squeezing his eyes shut. It looked very far away!

**l**

The passages of an Ori mothership had not been designed with battle in mind. The close quarters made energy weapons a bad idea, too much danger of hitting someone fighting on your side, and the Ori's superior forces found themselves jamming into a bottleneck until some were forced to wait patiently for their turn to die. It gave them time to consider Faith's words and more than one quietly slipped away to make himself indispensable elsewhere. But for every one who left, there were another three fanatic enough to take his place. The battle was bloody and brutal.

Faith struggled to keep track of everyone and fend off her attackers. She caught sight of Hal being dragged down under a pile of angry men out of the corner of her eye and aimed her zat his way, zatting the whole damn pile as she fought her way over there. Reaching them, Faith pulled dazed and confused soldiers off the top of the pile, digging down until she found Halstrom and dragged him out.

"You good?" she asked as she set him on his feet, zatting anyone who looked like they were even thinking of heading in their direction.

"I'm good," Hal confirmed, patting his armour as he searched for another weapon.

He'd lost his staff weapon at the bottom of the pile, although he'd managed to hold on to his knife. Got a few good jabs with it in while he was down there, and on his way back up. Faith handed him one of her zats and he took it gratefully, positioning himself so that his back touched Faith's as they fought off the Ori.

"Where are Nya and Elifa?" he asked.

"I see them," Faith told him.

They were double-teaming the Prior, taking it in turns to beat the living crap out of him while the other held off the soldiers attempting to intervene. They were doing well. Too well.

"Finish him, Ny!" yelled Faith to Nya, currently fighting off simultaneous attacks. "We gotta go!"

Nya broke off her attack immediately, ignoring the soldiers to target the Prior. But Elifa was already there, and had heard Faith too. She pressed home her attack, forcing the Prior to retreat. Through the press of bodies Faith saw her sword rise up, and then swing down towards the Prior. He jumped backward, but left his staff behind, using it to leverage himself out of harms way.

"No!" Faith bellowed, catching sight of her sword heading straight for a Prior's staff.

Elifa was unable to check her swing in time, and Faith's massive sword sliced cleanly through the Prior's staff, cutting it neatly in half.

The walls of the hall echoed with the sound of a collective indrawn breath from all present and then the Prior fell to his knees to pick up the other half of his staff. Ori weapons lowered, the soldiers that carried them staring in fascination as tears began to roll down the Prior's face.

"Noo..." he moaned, trying to fit the two pieces together.

Faith reached behind her and grabbed Hal's arm, opening her mouth to roar, "Run!"

"H-how?" the Prior sputtered feebly, looking up at Faith.

She left a knife buried in his eye, hoping that would delay the flames long enough for them to reach the ring room. It wasn't like it was a knife she was attached to, just one of those given to them in Camelot, and not even balanced well. It would have been useless if she'd tried to throw it, so in a way, she was glad to leave it where it could do some good. Hopefully.

Hal was _slow_! Faith pulled him along as quickly as she could, but he found it difficult to match her pace and keep his feet beneath him at the same time so it was left to her to do their fighting. Fortunately, Nya and Elle had blazed the trail for them. Faith didn't dare slow down, all too aware of the flames that could be licking at their heels in seconds. They caught up with the other two at the junction at the end of the hallway, fending off the few soldiers still curious about what was happening.

"Hal, take point," Faith ordered, flinging him forward.

Hal stumbled but kept moving, turning right and forcing himself to keep going as fast as he could. The women surrounding him had no such difficulty and he envied their ability to keep pace with him while successfully defending their small group. His armour dragged him down, making him sluggish, but he was glad he still had it and had no plans to attempt to discard it as they ran. It had saved his life more than once.

His mind dwelled on the memory of the Prior's ravaged face, on the surprise written on his face as he tumbled backwards, still clutching the two pieces of his staff even though Faith's knife was protruding from his eye. Then he forced himself to concentrate, leading the self-proclaimed slayers to the nearest ring room through the least used halls he could think of.

**l**

Kay didn't wait for the ship to finish landing or the ramp to fully lower, jumping off the end of the ramp as both were still lowering and hitting the ground running. Red fingers streaked the lightening sky behind her as she sprinted towards the cave, sprinting past the startled Dago and into the cave, going deeper in in search of Val. She dragged the young healer back outside with her, protesting all the way.

By then, Mallie and Kay had almost unloaded the last of their passengers, and Mallie was pointing the group to the cave. Ignoring Dago's scowl, Liss pulled Val past him, starting to explain the situation as quickly as she could. In Val's defence, she shut up as soon as she grasped the seriousness of the situation, and her protestations were based in the desire to stay close to her patients.

"What can I do to help?" asked the newest member to their close-knit team.

"Get this Skardhe and Hildar ready to move on foot," Kay told her. "We might not have time to come back and pick them up. Liss is going to be going back and forth, getting as many of them here as possible. You've got to get them to the Chappa'ai when she gives you the signal."

"What signal?" Val asked, her forehead puckering.

"Once Mallie's group's past the waterfall, it won't take them long to get to the 'Gate," said Liss. "If I've got time, I'll come and get the injured and ferry them to the Stargate. If they're too far past the waterfall when I spot them, I'll only be able to fly by to warn you before I have to get to the Stargate to support Kay."

"How can that warn us if we cannot see the ship as it passes?" Val's frowned deepened with concern.

"I'll drop the cloak," Liss told her. "Wait a moment."

Liss hurried to the cockpit, leaning over the pilot's chair to press the sequence of buttons to deactivate the clock. A message flashed up on the display to inform her that the cloaking device had been deactivated and she left it down for what felt like interminably long minutes but were in reality no more than seconds.

"Would you recognise it again?" she called over her shoulder and got a chorus of yeses from everyone still outside of the cave. She raised the cloak again and prepped the ship for take-off. "Mallie!"

"Coming!" Mallie yelled back, flopping into the seat next to Liss within seconds. "Let's go!"

**l**

"Why is the ship not on fire?" Nya asked Faith at the first convenient lull in the fighting.

"Should it be?" asked Elifa, new to things.

"You broke the Prior's staff, so yeah," replied Faith. "Least, that's what happened last time."

"You have done this before then?" said Elifa, unaccountably relieved.

"Rescued someone from an Ori mothership?" Faith stalled momentarily before admitting the truth, "Not so much. You're our first. Feel free to leave a suggestion in the box at the end of the ride."

"What box?" Elifa asked curiously.

"There is no box," Nya told her.

"No box...?" Elifa's frown was in serious danger of leaving permanent impressions on her forehead.

Halstrom suddenly turned sharply left, into a room and the slayers threw themselves through the open door behind him, sprinting beyond him to tackle the startled patrol guarding the room. The skirmish was over in seconds.

"Lock the door!" commanded Faith, heading towards the controls.

Halstrom closed the doors, but couldn't see a way to lock them, "There's no locking mechanism!"

"Stand back," Faith ordered, pointing her zat at him.

Halstrom stumbled out of her shot and Faith fired. The blue bolt of energy emitted by the zat hit the door controls, shorting out the electronic circuit. The doors sprung open.

"Damn," said Faith. "It worked in Star Wars. Okay, guard the doors while I program the rings," she told them and the other three sprang into action like a well-oiled machine. "Shouldn't take long, and I think I can get us close to the 'Gate. When I say so, fall back into the centre of the rings... Now!"

**l**

Brock and Ursula had made better progress than anticipated. Their group was almost at the waterfall and more than happy to take a break while the ship was packed full of another load of refugees. Liss insisted on cramming every last person still on foot into the small ship, so many that when she took off, the puddlejumper flashed her a warning that she was flying dangerously close to the ship's weight limit in gravity.

Liss grinned in elation. It was good to know that the small shuttle was capable of flying in space, in case they had to mount a rescue mission against an Ori mothership. Responding to her thoughts, the ship immediately began to list an inventory of its available weapons, which was just as instructive.

On the ground, Jem was trying his utmost to complain at the unfairness of being left behind whilst simultaneously having the breath jounced out of him as the riders raced towards the Stargate. Brock did his best to cheer him up, but Jem had already thrown up once. If he did it again, Brock was liable to lose all patience with him.

In front of them, Mallie sprinted, scouting the territory they would pass through.

**l**

"Okay..." said Faith, studying her surroundings. "Not as close as I was aiming for. Sun's coming up over there, mountain's behind us... Stargate's that way," she pointed, already walking.

"Wait," gasped Halstrom, bending over to finally catch his breath and pressing his hand against the sharp pain in his side. "Do we have time for me to take my armour off? I'll speed up, I promise." He could tell that he was slowing them down.

"Probably a good idea if we don't introduce you to the others in your armour," Faith conceded. "Might want to hurry though, who knows how long we've got until they follow us. Speaking of... Elle! Get out of the rings."

"Sorry," Elle apologised, stumbling forward, her eyes drinking in her surroundings and paying no attention to where her feet were going. "Are we really back on Cimmeria?"

"Yup," said Faith.

"How?" Elifa asked inquisitively.

"Rings transport on a line of sight trajectory," Faith filled her in. "Don't ask me for the physics, Daniel didn't know it and I wasn't interested."

Elifa understood about half of what Faith said, there were too many unfamiliar words and concepts, but she latched onto one word that was slightly familiar. "Daniel?" she queried. It _was _a most unusual name...

"Friend of mine," Faith told her, her face carefully blank. Anything that reminded her of the SGC and Cam made her feel like salt was being rubbed into her soul. Like part of it was missing, still on Earth. "Lives on my homeworld. Hopefully you'll get to meet him one day."

"Then, you are not from Cimmeria?" asked Elifa, voicing the theory that had grown from her observation of the three strangers.

"Nope," said Faith. "None of us are. Nya's from Simarka, I'm from Earth and Hal's from a whole other galaxy."

"Earth?"

"You guys call it Midgard," said Faith turning around to assess Hal's progress with his armour.

He was bending awkwardly to remove the shin pad from his right leg, hopping to keep his balance while Nya watched him from a distance, her face a blank mask but her eyes dancing with amusement. Faith tried to keep her own grin from her face but Hal made one more hop, and then stayed still for too long as he finally managed to remove the piece of armour. He lost his balance and tumbled backward in to the long grass, arms wind-milling wildly in an attempt to save himself. Nya laughed, a rich infectious contralto laugh that started in her belly and rose up to tumble over her dusk-rose lips. Even Elifa giggled, although she tried to stifle the sound, and Faith only stopped herself from joining them with a supreme act of will.

Machinery whirred and Faith spun to face the rings, pulling out her zat and activating it. The patrol of four Ori soldiers looked surprised to see them for a few seconds. Then they looked surprised to be dead. Hal's head poked up over the grass and his eyes widened as he caught sight of the four corpses lying in the rings. Faith strode over to him, offering him a hand up, and he took it.

Faith took stock of his appearance as he brushed the dirt off his clothes. At least he'd been wearing clothes under his armour! A cream coloured shirt and dark brown trousers, not remotely Cimmerian, but rustic enough to pass on other worlds.

"You ready to move?" she asked him.

"Oh, yes," said Halstrom, nodding.

"Then let's go," said Faith.

**l**

"She's back!"

Dago's shout carried across the hum of anxious conversations that permeated the cavern, turning heads and bringing people to their feet. In the middle of wrapping a makeshift bandage around a badly sprained ankle, Val couldn't spare the time to look, too busy giving a list of instructions to the man, and making sure he had someone nearby to help him get to the Stargate.

"It's time!" Liss announced as she strode into the cave, pitching her voice above the conversation level. "Everybody to the Stargate, as quickly as possible. No shoving! Val..." Liss pushed her way through the crowd to reach her. "Where're my passengers?"

"Not far," Val told her. "Only in the next chamber. I thought it best to keep them away from the crowd. Skardhe was getting quite agitated."

"I hope flying doesn't upset him," said Liss as she followed Val. A couple of her passengers on the last run had been almost hysterical by the time the small spaceship had touched down outside the cave system "He was unconscious last time."

Both Skardhe and Hildar, Gunnarr's wife, were very much conscious. They had been told that they would be taken to the Stargate in the ship and were on tenterhooks. Pitched to a state of high excitement by the arrival of two loads of refugees, they were lying nervously on their beds while they waited. Gunnarr sat with them, his children by his side as he attempted to calm his wife. He knew what Liss' presence meant and kissed Hildar goodbye, reassuring her that he would see her soon before he gathered up their two children and left for the 'Gate.

"Where's my daughter?" Skardhe demanded, and Val exchanged a long-suffering looking with Liss.

"I have told you before," Val said patiently. "She is on her way. You will see her soon."

Skardhe snorted, but let his head fall back to rest on the ground, his craggy worried features relaxing slightly.

"Is it time?" Hildar asked anxiously, propping herself up on both elbows to peer up at the two slayers.

"It is," Liss told her. "Are you ready?"

"I am prepared as anyone can be to visit Valhalla," said Hildar, and Liss frowned slightly. There was that word again; Valhalla. "Valencia says you will take us there through the sky, riding on the winds."

"Uh..." Liss gently picked up Hildar, her confused eyes meeting Val's bemused ones. "I suppose the 'Gateship is a bit like that, but you won't be able to see the sky. There are two benches, one for each of you. You'll be perfectly safe."

"I am not scared to ride with Valkyries," Hildar said serenely, cradled in Liss' arms. "I have made my peace with the Gods and am not afraid of death. What greater honour can the Gods bestow on me than the glory of Valhalla, and the escort of a Valkyrie?"

"'M not scared of Valkyries either!" Skardhe slurred crabbily, carried by Val just ahead of them. "Raised one, didn't I?"

He was almost unconscious by the time Val gently placed him down in the ship, although Hildar was still wide awake and looking curiously around. Her alien surroundings intrigued her; the puddlejumper was like nothing she had ever seen before.

"Thanks," Liss said to Val.

"It was no problem," Val graciously demurred.

"You know what to do?" Liss asked her, heading for the cockpit.

"Round up any stragglers," Val replied, repeating Kay's earlier words to her as she turned to leave. "Good luck."

"You too!" Liss called back over her shoulder as she started the ship's engines. As soon as Val was off the ramp, she raised it and lifted the small spaceship into the sky, pointing it towards the Stargate.

**l**

Kay was back in the tree she had spent so much time in, was it really only yesterday? It felt like days had passed since she had ambushed Ori patrols from this very tree. Once again, she was waiting for soldiers to show up, weapons held ready for the fight.

Her tree rocked, shaken as something invisible zoomed overhead. Kay's ear caught the faint note of an engine before it faded. The Stargate came to life with a clunk, the inner circle of symbols whirring round to select the first chevron. It was Kay's signal to move.

She dropped from the tree, landing in a crouch, and sprinted for the DHD, checking the lit symbols on console to make sure that they were the right ones, just in case the Ori could dial remotely. They were. Kay fell back into a defensive position as the wormhole burst out of the Stargate, settling into a rippling pool in the centre of the metal ring.

She waited, catching the sound of that engine on the breeze every now and then. Liss was still up there, circling the small clearing as she monitored the progress of the different groups, and watched for any sign of the Ori.

Mallie ran into the small clearing, noticed Kay, and immediately hunkered down on the other side of the Stargate, so that she could cover the other side of the woods. Kay smiled approvingly at her and Mallie smiled tightly back. She was too worried about Faith to really smile.

The puddlejumper flashed into view directly above them, Liss signalling the presence of Ori forces, and vanished again. Mallie and Kay aimed their weapons in the direction the ship had been facing. Mallie's heart was beating so loudly that she was afraid Kay would hear it. She still hadn't had a chance to catch her breath.

Then ground began to tremble and she realised that it wasn't her heart she could hear but hoof beats. The horses thundered closer, the herd pouring into sight. Coats dark with sweat and flecked with foam, they swept into the clearing and up the stone steps to the Stargate, their riders clinging on. Mallie stood, hoping to see Jem, but the horde passed in a blur, disappearing into the Stargate.

Four soldiers appeared, chasing after the riders, and Kay and Mallie opened fire with their zats. In the trees surrounding the clearing, birds sung their hearts out for the dawn chorus as men died below. A couple of the soldiers managed to get shots off with their weapons before they died, forcing Mallie to duck.

She noticed a vaguely familiar face loitering at the clearing's edge, near her and waved him forward. He ran to the Stargate, and Mallie managed to put a name, Alfred, to the face as he ran up the stone steps. He hesitated in front of the rippling wormhole, stretching out a tentative hand to test the waters, but more people were arriving and he had no wish to appear craven. He stepped into the portal.

People arrived at the clearing in dribs and drabs, and Mallie and Kay sent them through the 'Gate. Twice more the puddlejumper flashed into view, pointing out approaching soldiers, before disappearing and the two slayers on the ground were forced to call a temporary halt to the evacuation to defend the Stargate. Each time the knot of terrified refugees that had gathered rushed up the stone dais and straight into the 'Gate without so much as a second thought as soon as they were allowed in the clearing. Gunnarr, his small son in his arms and daughter clinging to his back, stopped long enough to thank both Mallie and Kay for all that they'd done.

Finally, Val appeared, carrying a small chubby boy of about five. He looked as though he had recently been crying, but he was chortling with glee as Val bounded into the clearing and up to the 'Gate. Mallie and Kay scrambled onto the steps as the three slayers on the ground heard the quiet sound of Ancient engines at work. Liss was coming in to land.

"Ready, Jarl?" asked Val, setting the child on his feet.

"Don't want to," the boy's lower lip stuck out mutinously.

"Jarl, we talked about this, remember?" Val said gently. "It will not hurt you, I promise, and your mother is waiting for you on the other side."

"Can't swim," Jarl said stubbornly.

"You don't need to swim in these waters," Kay told him confidingly. "They're magic."

The boy's eyes widened and he looked at the event horizon with awed respect instead of wary fear. "Promise?" he demanded.

"Promise," Kay said solemnly, and the small boy took a deep breath, screwed his eyes up tight, and stepped into the wormhole.

The puddlejumper hatch began to lower, Liss had parked it with its back to the Stargate, and the three slayers moved down the steps towards it, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of the enemy. They weren't taking any chances, especially when their new ship was so vulnerable. Liss was waiting for them just inside the puddlejumper, helping Hildar to stand.

"You take Skardhe," the Langaran slayer said to Val. "I'll help Hildar up the steps and then she can lean on you for the trip through the Stargate."

"Are you not coming?" Val blinked in surprise as Mallie and Kay slipped past her, into the ship.

"Someone has to fly the ship," said Liss.

"I did ask you to teach me," Kay threw over her shoulder as she entered the cockpit.

"We didn't have time," Liss replied testily. "Besides, you can't read Ancient."

"Why do I have to go?" asked Val, a mulish storm brewing in the back of her dark eyes.

"Because you're the closest thing we've got to a doctor!" Liss snapped. "Now, come on."

"No," refused Val, trying her hardest to keep her voice calm and steady. "It's not fair! All of you got the chance to fight, and I had to stay in the cave."

"Someone has got to go, we cannot leave Jem on his own," Mallie pointed out reasonably.

"Fine!" retorted Val. "You go. I will not!"

"I'm not going anywhere until I see my Elifa," Skardhe put in his own two cents.

"I am happy to stay a little longer," Hildar chimed in. Behind Val, the Stargate shut off with a crackle of displaced energy.

"Something's flashing," Kay called back from the cockpit.

Liss gently sat Hildar down on the free bench and bustled into the small bridge. She quickly read the Ancient symbols, translating them in her head. "The Stargate's been open for thirty-eight minutes," she informed the others. "We'll have to redial."

"I'm not going!" Skardhe shouted obstinately from the back of the ship.

"Neither am I," Val added, already halfway through helping Hildar to lie back down.

"We don't have time to argue," insisted Liss, reaching for the first glyph of the Stargate address. Kay's hand caught hers before she could push it.

"Exactly," the older slayer said calmly as Liss glanced at her in surprise. "What harm can it do if they stay? If either Skardhe or Hildar take a turn for the worse, then Val's already right here."

"What about Jem?" Mallie asked.

"If Faith isn't back soon it won't matter," Kay told her. "We'll send Hildar and Skardhe through without us and go get her."

"Over my dead body!" yelled Skardhe.

Kay yelled back at him, "Don't tempt me, old man!"

Silence. And then a little, "Hmph!"

**l**

Doctor Wilson was not in the infirmary, a fact that clearly displeased Doctor Lam greatly. Neither was she in the mess, where breakfast was being served. Andrew Wells was unaware of her whereabouts. She was not in her office, nor in her room. Neither was she with Vala Mal Doran.

The former Goa'uld elected to join Teal'c and Bra'tac on their search. She had been present when, upon learning that Doctor Wilson was a slayer, Bra'tac had expressed an interest in sparring with Doctor Wilson, and she was as intrigued as Teal'c as to the outcome of such a match. This early in the morning, there were only a limited number of places Doctor Wilson could be. Teal'c tried the gym next.

She was there. Her eyes were shut as she moved gracefully through one of the many kata she was teaching Teal'c, her expression serene as she flowed effortlessly from one position to another. Loath to disturb her, Teal'c waited patiently on the sidelines for her to finish, although he could not resist glancing at Bra'tac to see what he thought of the Tau'ri exercises. To Teal'c's inner delight, Bra'tac's eyes were hooded thoughtfully and he was absent-mindedly stroking his small beard.

Unfortunately Vala Mal Doran was incapable of remaining silent for more than three and a half minutes. It wasn't long before she was asking Bra'tac if he intended to see any of Earth during his visit. Considering that Bra'tac had made many visits to the SGC, but had yet to receive clearance to leave the mountain despite making an occasionally repeated request to do so, it was an inappropriate question to ask. Teal'c glared at her as Doctor Wilson opened her yellow-green eyes, looking directly at the three standing by the door.

"Morning," she said to them.

"Good morning, Doctor Wilson," Teal'c replied before Vala could, stepping forward one step. "I trust you are well."

"Fit as a fiddle," Jool told him, standing on one leg with her arms arched high above her head, palms meeting. She held the pose with ease as she asked, "Ready to spar?"

"Actually," said Teal'c, stepping to one side and indicating Bra'tac. "Master Bra'tac has mentioned a wish to take my place."

"Bra'tac?" Jool looked at the grizzled Jaffa warrior, assessing him. Bra'tac stared steadily back, his eyes and face calm. Only Teal'c noticed his fingers twitch slightly, as though wishing for a weapon.

"Okay," agreed Jool. A fight against the Jaffa who had taught Teal'c everything he knew sounded like the perfect way to drive all thoughts of her dream away. "I'm game."

**l**

Gunnarr's cave was deserted. The small cave system showed signs that a largish group of people had left in a hurry. Faith smiled in satisfaction as she looked around, but she was tired and the smile was small.

"Hal, sit down and get your breath back," she ordered, and Halstrom gratefully sank to the sandy floor. The ex-soldier had gamely kept up with the pace Faith had set the whole way without complaining once. Actually, he hadn't said anything at all. "Rest of you, take five."

"What...?" Elifa began to ask.

"She means rest," Nya translated for Faith, following the dark-haired slayer into the deeper recesses of the caves.

Left alone in the first chamber with Halstrom, Elifa glanced over at him. He wasn't wheezing anymore and his red face was slowly fading from an all-over scarlet to bright flushes across his cheeks. Overall, he looked better.

"How long have you been a-viking with Faith and Nya?" Elifa asked him.

"About..." Halstrom was still gasping for air, "Five hours."

Shocked, Elifa stared at him, and Halstrom stared candidly back. The native slayer blinked and turned to face Nya and Faith as they re-entered the cavern.

"Elle, relax," Faith told her. "Take a load off."

"Sit," translated Nya.

"I'm gonna keep watch," said Faith, taking time to fix Nya with a pointed stare before she headed towards the cave entrance.

As dawn had slowly arrived, so too had soldiers. By the time they had reached the cave they had encountered six patrols and dodged countless others. Faith wanted everyone rested for the final sprint to the 'Gate.

She was pleased to find the cave empty. It meant that the others had managed to get everyone off the planet already. She was refusing to listen to the niggling little worried voice in the back of her head that kept insisting that they'd all been captured, or worse. They were fine. They were off-world. They were safe. If she got through the Stargate and they weren't there, then she'd worry.

Elifa had followed her outside and Faith frowned at her until the blonde slayer finally sat. On Faith's foot, but then, you couldn't have everything. Faith ostentatiously moved her foot. Nya stayed in the cave. Faith assumed it was to intimidate Hal some more. The Simarkan slayer was doing a good job of it. Too good. Faith wasn't used to being the good cop.

"Where are we going?" Elifa whispered quietly after a few minutes. Faith glanced at her, worried she might be about to dig her heels in, but her face was merely curious. "This isn't the way to my home," Elifa continued her reasoning. "Where is my father? You said you would take me to him."

"Your Dad's being taken care of by some friends of mine," Faith whispered back, ducking her head below the rocks as she caught sight of an Ori patrol cautiously picking their way through the trees at the clearing's edge. "They should be on the other side of the Stargate, portal," Faith corrected herself so that Elifa would understand what she meant. "By now."

"The Portal of the Gods?" Elifa asked, her eyes round. "But... it is forbidden to travel through it."

"Not for us," Faith told her. Peeping back over the rocks, she saw that the Ori soldiers were headed their way. "Shit!" she swore quietly, turning to Elifa. "Go get Nya... and stay down!" she added when Elifa went to stand, which would have made her a perfect target for the soldiers and given their position away.

The newest slayer nodded, and disappeared into the cave. Faith peeked at the soldiers again. They were definitely headed towards the cave. She swore silently. Elle only had her sword and knife to defend herself. Nya, Hal and Faith were the ones carrying ranged weapons capable of taking the soldiers out before they got here. Faith had just one zat on her, and she estimated that she could take out two, maybe three, of the soldiers before the survivors found cover. Then she'd be forced into a firefight, which would only draw the attention of other nearby soldiers.

No. If they were gonna make it to the 'Gate then they needed to do it quickly and without attracting attention. Or they'd find themselves held up by a fight they couldn't win. They were grossly outnumbered.

Elle ducked out of the cave, closely followed by Nya. The two slayers joined Faith, who caught a glimpse of Hal hovering just inside the cave. Impatiently, she flapped her hand at him to move further back. He obeyed, sinking back into the shadows. Faith turned her attention to Nya, who'd summed up the situation with one quick glance over the rocks.

"On three," Faith told her, activating her zat. Nya nodded, following suit. "One... two..."

Two bolts of yellow light whizzed past, close overhead, and Faith's head popped up over the rocks to follow their path. They slammed into the two leading soldiers, despite their last-second attempts to dodge, and engulfed them in a fiery explosion that took care of the two soldiers following them as well. Elifa's jaw dropped as the young blonde took in the carnage. Faith meanwhile was looking skyward.

The puddlejumper's engines hummed into hearing and with it the sound of the hatch being lowered. Liss gently brought the ship in to land, the ramp lowering while they were still in the air to expose Mallie.

"What the hell are you doing here?" yelled Faith, standing up.

"Saving your ass!" Mallie yelled back as the cloaked ship descended. "Get in."

Nya needed no encouragement, leaping over the rocks and sprinting towards the opening the lowered ramp had revealed. Elifa stood frozen, jaw still hanging open as she stared.

"Hal!" Faith roared for him, giving Elle a shove to help her on her way.

Elifa stumbled towards the puddlejumper as Halstrom appeared, his weapons held ready for a fight. His arms fell to hang slackly by his sides when he caught sight of the Ancient ship only now settling on the ground. Because it was still cloaked all that was visible was the inside, making it look like a room had appeared in thin air, a concept that both Halstrom and Elifa were having difficulty with, despite the fact that Halstrom knew what caused the phenomenon. Fortunately, Halstrom had Faith to pull him towards it, and Elifa was being encouraged forward by Mallie and Nya, both standing just inside the ship.

She reached the puddlejumper before Faith and Halstrom, gaining momentum the whole way. Once she was close enough to glimpse her father, she ran to him; straight past Nya and Mallie to wrap him into a hug, while Val anxiously watched, worried about Skardhe's health.

Halstrom and Faith were almost at the puddlejumper when a bolt of energy from an Ori staff weapon zoomed past, hitting the ground nearby with a small explosion. Faith hauled Hal towards the ship and let go of him to turn in the direction the bolt had come from.

Another patrol of four Ori soldiers were running towards them. Faith fired at one of them, still sprinting towards the ship. So did Mallie and Nya. The four bolts of energy (Mallie had two zats) hit three soldiers, killing one and knocking two unconscious. The fourth soldier threw himself behind a convenient rock.

"Go!" bellowed Faith as she zatted the rock, hoping the soldier was touching it.

Halstrom's foot touched the ramp and Liss began to slowly lift the ship, knocking him off-balance. He started to fall backwards and Nya lunged towards him, grabbing his flailing hand and yanking him forward. He staggered forwards, slamming into her. Nya didn't budge, despite Halstrom's superior height and mass. She waited until he'd regained his balance and then stepped backwards and to the side.

Faith leapt for the ramp as the soldier's head popped around his rock and Mallie squeezed off a shot at him, hitting the button to raise the ramp as soon as Faith's feet touched it and yelling, "All in!"

A shot hit the side of the ship as Faith slid down the rising ramp, followed by more. The small ship shuddered.

"Sorry!" Liss' voice was tight. "Hang on," she instructed as Faith pushed her way forwards, towards the cockpit. "This could get bumpy. Jem, dial the address."

Faith arrived in time to see Kay, sitting in the co-pilot's chair, point at a flashing line of red text and ask, "What does that mean?"

"We've lost one of the engines," Liss translated grimly as Mallie, Nya, Halstrom and Val pushed their way into the already crowded compartment behind Faith, filling the small room to beyond capacity. "It must have been hit during the fight."

"'Gate," pointed out Faith.

"I see it," said Liss, banking sharply.

"Tree!" cried several people.

Liss cleared the tree with inches to spare and pointed the ship straight down at the ground, pulling up at the last possible second to bring it level with the Stargate. They felt the ship grate against the bottom of the platform, the rippling blue waters raced towards them and then they were through!

Still scraping the platform until Liss pulled up, piloting the ship over the heads of the Cimmerians gathered in the valley. They were staring upwards and Liss checked the status of the cloak. It was inactive, and she didn't bother trying to switch it on, conserving power until she landed. Speaking of which... She started to scan for a suitable landing site.

"Park it there," Faith told her, pointing.

**l**

Ba'al mentally reviewed all of the information he possessed on the Watchers Council, past and present, as he impatiently waited for his men to arrive. It had been ridiculously easy to gain access to the files various governments kept on the organisation, but the tale they told had been almost too fantastic to believe. It was only Ba'al's distant memories of his Original's first time on Earth, back when he had first been spawned millennia ago, that kept him from dismissing it entirely as Tau'ri superstition. Further research had turned up additional proof of the existence of demons and slayers, as the hok'taur females were known. The long-ago memories of the Original Ba'al suggested that possession of these females was not advisable. If the girl Ba'al remembered had truly been a slayer then it had led directly to the spawning of the Tok'ra.

He needed to find their weakness before he attempted to upgrade his host, getting rid of the wretched tracking device in this one in the process. He was convinced that the slayers possessed one. Every creature had its weakness and Ba'al intended to find theirs. But to do so would require more information than his sources could provide. He needed someone on the inside, and his usual method of infiltration was doomed to failure in this case. He already had proof that the hok'taurs could sense Goa'uld.

Fortunately, other options were open to him...

On cue, there was knock on the door of his lab and one of his security men entered the room to tell him that the team he was expecting had just been cleared at the gate. Ba'al hurried to the garage to meet them, his eyes not noticing his sumptuous surroundings as he passed through them.

Four burly men were piling out of a nondescript van, the two who exited from the rear doors dragging a hooded man between them. One of the men approached Ba'al respectfully and the two that were dragging the fifth man joined them.

"As promised," the leader said to Ba'al, ripping the hood off his prisoner's head.

Ba'al's smile exuded satisfaction as he met Cyril Leighton's dazed eyes. "Bring him," he ordered.


	28. Cogito Ergo Sum Part 1: Valhalla

**A/N:**

Dear Reader,

Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry. Blame the teenager! It's his fault. He's the one that got made homeless a month ago and has been crashing on the sofa in my itty bitty living space ever since. It's really hard to write under those circumstances when your computer's also your TV, especially when whenever there isn't a television program playing on it a teenager pokes you until you get up and find something to put on that he hasn't seen. On the plus side, he used to mock me for going on a march to save Farscape (a tendency he inherited from his mother) but he's now such a fan that he can completely understand why I had to do what I had to do. Besides, she marched to stop nuclear weapons and power stations... at least one of us got somewhere with our respective issues!

Good news is, he's cleared off for two weeks (more if I can get him a place of his own) enabling me to finish work on the latest chapter of Slayers in Space. Yay! Bad news is, my social life's gone from 0 to 60 recently (don't even get me started on the week of free tickets!) so work has yet to begin on the next and I can't guarantee a delivery date.

That said, enjoy the first installation of the Momento Mori arc!

Kennie

x

**Cogito Ergo Sum – Part One: Valhalla**

Jem sat in the long grass, his legs drawn up to his chest, arms hugged round them, with his chin resting on his knees. He was staring determinedly at the Stargate, willing it to come to life. He resolutely ignored the Cimmerians milling about behind him, even when he heard footsteps approaching him. He wanted no part of their excited reunions or their bemused wonder at the sudden jump from breaking dawn to full-blown morning and curiosity about their new surroundings. He'd gotten over his wonder at the Stargate a couple of worlds ago and the only people he wanted to see hadn't come through the alien device. Yet, he reminded himself. They hadn't arrived _yet_.

The person behind him sighed and crouched down beside him. Jem glanced at them, quickly looking back at the Stargate. He wasn't surprised that it was Gunnarr; his wife, Hildar was also missing. It was unusual to see him without his children though, and Jem found himself briefly wondering where they were.

"They're all talking about whether or not to go to that city," Gunnarr said diffidently. "Thought I'd get some peace and quiet."

"Me too," Jem replied uncommunicatively.

Gunnarr looked swiftly at Jem and then away, recognising that the boy wasn't in the mood for company. He let silence settle around them, savouring the feeling of being in the open after so many days spent hiding in caves, only venturing out to do battle. Closing his eyes, he revelled in the feel of sunlight on his face and body, in the sound of the gentle wind soughing through the long grass... and finally realised just what was wrong with this planet, why his body was still poised to fight.

"No birds," said Gunnarr, glancing up into the sky.

"What?" Jem looked at him sharply.

"There are no birds," Gunnarr repeated. "No insects... the only animals I have seen are the horses Brock brought with him and his people."

"Liss thinks that the Ori wiped every living creature out," Jem admitted reluctantly. He wasn't sure how much the Cimmerians had been told about their new home and didn't want to get into trouble with Faith for revealing something she wanted kept secret. On the other hand, Gunnarr had never treated him like a kid and Jem had no idea if Faith or the others were still alive at this point.

"What is to stop them from returning to do the same to us?" Gunnarr asked, horrified at the thought of swopping one danger for another.

"Faith said, _says_," Jem corrected himself. "The fact that they've already done it." Gunnarr looked confused, and Jem explained Faith's reasoning further, "They think this place is deserted, so they've got no reason to come back."

"I must tell my people," Gunnarr told him, getting to his feet.

The chevrons on the Stargate in front of them suddenly lit up as a plume of what looked like water rushed out of the metal circle, and back in, settling down into rippling waves. Jem leapt up, leaning forward as his eyes strained to see beyond the Stargate, to what was coming through it. Please, please, please, please, please, he found himself silently chanting, almost dancing on the spot.

The small spaceship Faith had found flew out of the wormhole, accompanied by a screeching, scraping sound and sparks as the bottom of the ship grated across the top of the Stargate platform before whoever was piloting it pulled up into the air. Yelling incoherently, Jem chased after it.

He wasn't the only one. Galloping hooves beat against the ground behind him, and Brock overtook him, followed by Ursula, both on horseback. Jem glanced behind him and saw Gunnarr, and several other people running behind him. Jem put on a burst of speed as the ship veered towards the village.

Ursula and Brock's horses' hooves clattered on the cobbled streets, ringing against the walls of the deserted city. Neck and neck, Ursula and Brock raced towards the centre of the city, a large grin on the old woman's face. She hadn't felt this alive in years! The long hours of late hours and sleepless nights of her lengthy career in midwifery had conditioned her to push back the exhaustion she felt, despite her advanced years. Although Ursula knew she would pay for it after she had slept, she didn't care. Ever since the Valkyries had arrived on Cimmeria she had been caught up in their chaotic whirlwind, and she was thoroughly enjoying every moment of it.

Voices caught her attention and she and Brock slowed, reining their horses into a walk in order to better hear. Ursula recognised the female voices, although she couldn't make out what they were saying. They were coming from the other side of a tall wall running along one side of the street, built of cream stone. Brock guided his horse to a large pair of doors set into the wall further along, bending down to unlatch them and push one open. Ursula followed him through, and into the stable yard beyond.

Faith, Mallie, Kay and Nya were all standing in the courtyard, with the Ori soldier they had had with them earlier, on Cimmeria. He was no longer wearing the armour of a soldier however; instead he wore clothing not dissimilar to some of the piles of clothes they had passed on their way through the city. The Valkyries were supervising the flight of their magical ship into the stables across the yard from the large house they had chosen. Mallie was the first to notice the two Cimmerians, and she grinned at them. Noticing that she wasn't paying any attention, Faith looked sharply at the blonde Valkyrie and then followed her gaze to Ursula and Brock, still mounted on their horses.

"Ursula!" called Faith. "Val wanted to see you. She's inside," Faith told the old woman, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the house behind her, before she turned her attention back to the small ship slowly edging into the stables.

Ursula and Brock exchanged speaking glances before they both dismounted. Ursula handed her horse's reins to Brock and began shuffling towards the house, feeling every muscle in her worn body protesting the change from horseback to foot. Brock watched her struggle for a few moments before cursing under his breath and abandoning the horses to stride forward and snatch the old woman up into his arms.

"Put me down!" Ursula insisted furiously. "I can manage."

"Why try?" Brock asked her. "When I can manage for you?"

He ignored her shrill protests, carrying her inexorably into the house. Their horses, well-trained, stayed where they had been left. Jem ran smack into Brock's, the biggest of the two, when he arrived, bouncing him to the cobbled ground. Surprised, the horse snorted, turning its long neck to look at Jem, sitting blinking on the cobbles. The horse stepped closer to sniff Jem with his velvety nose, its snorting breath ruffling the boy's red hair.

Jem scuttled backwards, getting his feet beneath him and scrambling upright and away from the pair of horses. Feminine laughter echoed around the courtyard, and Jem's head twisted round to see the slayers standing near the stables. He flushed as red as his hair, turning away from them to stomp towards the house.

Mallie glanced at Faith, worry and guilt mixed in her eyes, and Faith nodded slightly. Her eyes lighting up, Mallie chased after Jem as more people cautiously entered the stable yard from the street. Faith picked out one in particular.

"Yo, Gunnarr!" she called, getting the man's attention. "She's inside."

Gunnarr beamed at her as he hurried into the house. It was the largest one in the village, and Faith was really hoping there were enough beds inside for every slayer to crash, and somewhere for Jem and Hal too. She had a serious case of the H and H's, but more than that, she was exhausted. She'd completely lost track of time somewhere along the way, and didn't know if she'd been up one day or two. Didn't care either.

The others were looking as tired as she felt, all of them running on fumes. Val and Elifa had taken the two Cimmerians inside, while Liss parked the ship in the barn and the others helped her. The ship was inside now and Liss was trying to turn it in the close confines so that she could land with enough space to lower the ramp and get out, Nya and Kay helping her with hand signals. Faith sighed. She really should help them, but they looked like they had things under control, and her feet felt like she was wearing concrete boots.

"Excuse me," a gentle hand fell on Faith's arm and the slayer jerked away from the contact, turning to face the man who'd touched her. "You are Faith, are you not?"

"Yeah," Faith admitted, trying to place the man and failing. "Who're you?"

"I am Vealdr, the Helgi of Cimmeria," said the man, middle-aged, sandy-haired and starting to go bald Faith noticed. "Where are the people of Valhalla?"

"What the hell's a Helgi?" Faith demanded, going on the offensive. She hadn't thought this far ahead when she'd been making her plans and wasn't entirely sure she trusted the man in front of her to know the truth. And there was that word again, Valhalla. It rang distant bells in the recesses of her mind, leaving Faith certain that she should know it.

"How is it that you know Thor, yet you do not know of his Helgi?" countered Vealdr.

"Guess you're not that important to him," said Faith, and the man flushed. She shrugged, turning away, "Don't sweat it. Doubt he mentioned us either."

"Who has not heard of Thor's Valkyries?" Vealdr asked her back, his raised voice ringing off the walls of the courtyard. Faith looked back at him as his eyes narrowed craftily, "Yet who has ever heard of so many at once? Did not Thor himself say '_One_ girl in all the world'...?"

"You don't think the Ori are worth it?" asked Faith. "You think Thor doesn't know what he's doing?"

"I didn't say that," Vealdr backpedalled.

"But you thought it," Faith told him. She sighed, exhaustion crashing down on her shoulders, bowing them under its weight. "Get out," she said quietly.

"What?" Vealdr blinked, certain he must have misheard.

"Get out!" Faith repeated.

"Is there a problem?" Kay asked, approaching them.

"No," said Vealdr, looking from one slayer to another. "No problem."

"Good," said Kay, standing by Faith's side as the two slayers watched Vealdr slink back to the wall and out into the street, followed by a few of the Cimmerians clustered near the gates. "What was that about?"

"Don't know," Faith said grimly. "Probably trouble. We done here? Good."

Turning on her heel, the dark-haired slayer strode towards the house without a backwards glance, Nya just behind her. Kay stayed where she was for a moment longer as Liss shut the stable doors on the ship and hurried after Faith. An apprehensive frown puckered Kay's forehead as she stared thoughtfully at the gates in the courtyard wall, wondering if the confrontation was something she needed to worry about. A couple of the men in the small crowd, emboldened by her stare, moved forwards as though to approach her.

"Yo, Kay!" Mallie called, sticking her head out of the door. "You coming?"

Her abstraction broken, Kay glanced over at the younger, blonde slayer, nodding slightly. The two men who'd stepped forward melded back into the crowd as Kay walked into the house, following in Mallie's wake.

**l**

Jool stretched before she knocked on General Landry's door, feeling the muscles in her shoulders popping and the pleasurable aches of a good workout fading. She needed her mind focussed on the debriefing she was about to give the General, and on SG-13's briefing that would follow the meeting, not on her recent sparring match with Bra'tac, or dwelling on the dream she had had last night.

She grimaced at the memory. The fight against Bra'tac had driven the dream from her mind, but now it had returned, hovering at the back of her mind and filling her with nameless dread. Ruthlessly, she pushed the feeling and the memories down, squaring her shoulders as she rapped on the door. Now was the time to concentrate on yesterday, not today, not tomorrow.

"Come in," Landry's voice instructed her and she opened the door, closing it behind her.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologised. "Master Bra'tac wanted to spar, and I lost track of time..."

"How did it go?" inquired Landry, his eyes twinkling. He had money riding on the outcome.

"He's good," Jool admitted with a grin. "Really good!"

"As good as a slayer?" Hank asked leadingly, striving to suppress his amused smile as he waved her into the chair opposite him.

"Better," Jool told him, sitting down. "He's nowhere near as fast, or as strong, but he's got hundreds of years of experience on his side. He's promised to spar with me again, next time he's here."

"I see," said Hank, leaning forward. Clearly he'd have to request a copy of the security footage if he wanted to know who'd actually won. "Now, about P3X-29J..."

**l**

"I am your God," Ba'al informed the man glaring defiantly up at him, despite the shackles he wore and the kneeling position they forced him into. "You will pray to me for mercy before I am finished with you. If you please me, I may even grant it."

If truth were told, Ba'al was secretly hoping that his prisoner resisted. Interrogations were always more satisfying when the subject had to be worn down. Granted, he had no sarcophagus on Earth, to restore the old man to life, but he was reasonably confident that he could bring him back from the brink of death with the healing device he did have.

"Do what you want with me," Cyril told him, his voice ringing with bravado even as it shook with age. "I will never betray my calling."

Ba'al chuckled dryly. "I was hoping you'd say that," he told Cyril, activating his other hand device... the one that caused pain.

Cyril screamed. The agonised sound was sweeter than music to Ba'al's twisted ears. He smiled, deactivating the hand device. The septuagenarian sagged forwards, panting harshly.

"Tell me," instructed Ba'al. "Of the Slayer."

"Never," Cyril gasped.

Ba'al smiled again, reactivating his hand device. Once more, Cyril's screams filled the room...

**l**

Faith had gathered all of the slayers in the large kitchen of the house they had appropriated. Laughing, joking and telling each other stories about what had happened to them on Cimmeria, they clustered round the large wooden table in the centre of the room. Kay had transferred the spoiling food heaped on the table to the surfaces around the edges of the walls, throwing out anything that was beyond saving and serving a hasty meal of bread, cheese and a green salad. Now she was bent over the fire she had built, pouring water into a large cauldron hanging over it. Jem and Halstrom were there too, and so were other non-slayers. Faith had asked Gunnarr, Brock and Ursula to attend, and as soon as Skardhe had learned that there was to be a council of war he had insisted on being present. Val and Elifa had carried him in on a small cot bed and although he had requested that the bed be moved four times, at last he seemed contented with his position halfway between the fire and the table.

Hildar had entered the room on her husband's arm and now sat next to him. She was wan-faced, but her eyes were bright and she was avidly trying to follow several conversations at once. The Valkyries fascinated her; they were so bright and vibrant, totally foreign to all that she knew and wonderfully exotic. No two Valkyries were alike. For example, although Mallie, Liss and Elifa were all blonde, their eye colour and bone structure were uniquely theirs. Even their pale hair varied in shade, Mallie's was golden, like the colour of ripe wheat, while Liss' had a reddish tone to it. Elifa's hair was almost white, like Hildar's own, but there the resemblance ended. Elifa was tan and toned, and she moved with the same energy that was the Valkyries' only shared characteristic. Hildar's skin was pale, and her body soft and flabby. Her recent illness had left her weak and languid, and generously increased the sprinkling of white hair amongst her blonde. She envied the Valkyries their boundless energy, and wished it didn't leave her feeling quite so exhausted.

"Okay!" Faith's voice rose above the others. "Pipe down! We gotta lot to get through."

"Like what?" asked Mallie as the slayers settled down, turning to Faith for guidance.

"Like what happened here, and who the hell Vealdr is," Faith told her bluntly.

"Who's Vealdr?" frowned Liss.

"Thor's High Priest," Brock informed them all. "He is a very holy man."

Ursula snorted derisively, "So holy that he was not permitted to gaze upon the Gods! They preferred Gairwyn as their handmaiden. Vealdr never forgave her for that slight."

"It is true," Gunnarr admitted. "My mother tried to explain to him that they meant no insult, but he would not listen to her."

"Sounds pleasant," Kay said flippantly.

"More like trouble," Faith corrected her bluntly. "He was sniffing around here earlier, wanting to know what happened to the people who used to live here."

"Speaking of that..." said Brock.

"That's not good," Mallie said at the same time, frowning.

"Go on, girl," Ursula encouraged Faith as the Tau'ri slayer bit her lower lip, searching for the right words. "Tell us what happened."

"I already told Gunnarr," Jem admitted and Hildar and Brock turned to look at the dark-haired Cimmerian.

"All he said was that the Ori wiped all the creatures out," Gunnarr said reluctantly. "He didn't say how."

"We don't know how," Liss told him. "I'm assuming that they used some sort of biological weapon capable of destroying living creatures because there was no affect on inanimate objects like the buildings or their clothes, or on the local flora."

"Then," said Hildar, her forehead creased as she worked her way through her logic, "Those piles of clothes... They used to be people?" She shuddered when Liss nodded, cringing into her husband.

Gunnarr wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, his eyes serious as he spoke, "We should honour their passing."

"Not to mention it's creepy having piles of clothes hanging round," agreed Faith.

"Why would Thor allow such a thing to happen?" wondered Hildar.

"Yeah..." said Faith. "About that..."

"Thor didn't send you," Ursula said shrewdly. Of all the Cimmerians, she had spent the most time in the company of the slayers, and she'd worked out that particular secret early into their acquaintance. But they'd offered her people a chance at survival, and so she'd gone along with their deception, hoping for the best. Had they continued the deception then perhaps she might have spoken up, refuting their lies, but she was pleased that they were telling the truth and she would not have to take that step.

"No," confessed Faith.

Ursula was positively gleeful to have surprised her fellow Cimmerians with the revelation. They reacted with shock, and bluster from the men. Even little Elifa was taken aback, and Ursula made careful note of it, realising that it meant that the Valkyries hadn't told one of their own the truth either. Because Valkyries they were, whether Thor had sent them or not.

"Quiet!" she yelled over the menfolk, earning glares from them even as they shut up. "Let her tell us why they lied and then judge whether they did wrong."

"It was the quickest way to get you off Cimmeria," Faith said honestly. "And we were on a deadline. Adria's on her way there, probably arrived by now, and you guys were one the edge of being wiped out. So when I thought of this place, I knew it'd be perfect for you."

"What if the Ori return here?" asked Brock.

"They won't," Faith told him confidently. "They've already been here once and they think everyone's dead. No-one'll look for you here."

"Can you be sure?" Skardhe asked cannily. "Are you willing to stake your life on it?"

"If necessary," Faith replied coolly. "But we won't be sticking around long. We'll be on the move in a couple of days."

"What?" cried Elifa. There was no way her father would be well enough to travel with them.

"But I thought you would be staying here," said Hildar. "With us."

"As did I," rumbled Brock, looking disapproving.

"Why don't we?" suggested Liss when Faith looked like she might dig her heels in stubbornly. "I'm not suggesting we give up fighting the Ori, but we could use a base of operations, instead of bouncing from planet to planet."

"My mother would be willing to move here," Val put in her two-cents worth. "She said as much before we left Camelot, and she is a much more experienced healer than I."

"I'll think about it," was all that Faith would say on the subject. She quite liked their nomadic lifestyle, but could see the sense of their argument. On the other hand, she didn't want to draw the Ori's attention to this planet, and there was a risk that they might if they made it their home. Home... Earth seemed a million light-years from this medieval village and Faith wondered if she'd ever think of this place as home. "In the meantime we've got more important things to worry about. Brock, what do your people need right now?"

**l**

Adria stared at the Commander cowering in front of her, almost speechless in her rage and disbelief. He wasn't even the Commander she had chosen to lead the men of this ship, he was an imposter to her eyes. A jumped-up nobody who'd taken the place of the Commander she'd chosen when he'd died, simply because he'd had the ambition to seize the opportunity when those around him had still been dazed with shock. Bad enough that her Commander had died, but the Priors too? The fact that the soldiers had recovered from the blow so quickly, sending search parties down to the planet below, would almost be praiseworthy, if it weren't so troubling. Her army had not been designed with such autonomy in mind. That, and the fact that none of the surviving men had prevented her Priors from dying almost convinced Adria that she had no further use for this particular division of soldiers.

Yet each soldier who died in the service of the Ori diminished her power. Her forces here had been decimated, and the Priors both killed. Worse, the ship she had arrived on was no more than a deserted hulk floating in orbit, courtesy of the Jaffa Free Nation. Even now, she could feel soldiers dying on other planets in this troublesome galaxy, fighting for Origin. Her losses had been far greater than original estimates had predicted back when the plan to invade this galaxy had first been conceived, before her conception and birth. Adria couldn't afford to lose another shipful of soldiers, even if their numbers weren't at full strength. Slightly less than half of the soldiers who had made the trip through the Supergate were still surviving, and Adria was rapidly running out of Priors.

If it wasn't for Faith she might still be tempted to kill the soldiers onboard this ship; she couldn't risk a mutiny, and many aboard this ship were wavering in their allegiance to Origin. But the dark-haired Clava seemed determined to defy her, and she was coercing other Clava into joining her. The description the man before her had given her of their attacks was vague, especially when it came to how many of them there had been, but Adria recognised Faith's style when she saw it. Who else would have the audacity to use the ring platforms to board and attack one of Adria's ships? No, far better to save her troops for when she needed them, Adria decided, and hope that her Fathers had a solution for her when next she got a chance to commune with them.

"Tell me again," she said to the Commander, looking for a flaw in his testimony that would give her the excuse she needed to replace him. "Exactly what happened."

**l**

"...Until the last of the swelling in his spinal column goes down we won't know just how severe the extent of Jonas' back injury is," Jool told the team in front of her, coming to the end of her briefing. General Landry had asked her to stay after SG-13's earlier briefing, so that she could update SG-1 on Jonas' condition. "Even then, it's possible that with time and physiotherapy he could regain greater mobility."

"Doctor Wilson has requested that Vala continue treating Jonas with the Goa'uld healing device," Landry informed his team. Vala herself wasn't present; Landry had asked her to leave the room at the beginning of the meeting.

"Sounds reasonable," said Cam. "You think it can do anything for his back?" he asked Jool.

"I don't know," Jool admitted. "I certainly hope so, but as far as I can tell, there's never been any tests done on the long-term effects of the device."

"Well, we've never had someone able to reliably use the device living on the base before," pointed out Daniel. "What about the effects on Vala? She said it drains her."

"We'll monitor Vala as well of course," Jool promised him. "If at any point it looks like the consequences are outweighing the benefits, we'll stop the therapy."

"I have never heard of the healing device causing long-term damage to the user," Teal'c reassured them. He frowned thoughtfully, and continued, "Of course, most users have a Goa'uld symbiote to heal them."

"It seems like a good idea to me," said Sam. Daniel caught her eye and she hastily added, "Providing, of course, that Vala's alright with it. I'd like to see your reports," she told Jool.

"I'll make sure to send you copies," replied Jool, catching General Landry's eyes and pointedly looking at the door, her eyebrows raised infinitesimally as she silently asked him if he wanted her to leave now her report was done. He shook his head slightly in reply.

"Speaking of Miss Mal Doran," he said to the whole table, opening a folder in front of him and taking out a sheaf of papers. "I'd like all of you to complete these performance evaluations. I'm asking SG-13 to do the same, off the record."

"Is this just for P3X-29J?" asked Daniel, leafing through the thick document Sam had passed him.

"Her entire probation period," General Landry swiftly disabused him of the notion. "If she receives satisfactory reports she'll be assigned to a team."

"Did you have a particular team in mind?" Daniel asked carefully.

"Actually I was wondering if you'd take her," Landry said dryly. "You don't have to give me your answer now, talk it over..."

"We'll take her," Cam told him. He glanced around the table at the faces of his team. "I think I speak for all of us."

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.

"Sure," said Sam.

"Why not?" Daniel sighed with a long-suffering shrug, but the corners of his mouth were pointing ever so slightly upwards.

"Good," Landry beamed at them. "I'd have offered her to SG-13 if you said no. Dismissed."

"General," Daniel said before anyone could stand. "Sir, I was wondering if I could be the one to tell her?"

"I don't see why not," replied Landry, standing up. "Go ahead."

Daniel grinned at General Landry, getting to his feet with the rest of those still sat round the table, "Thank you, sir."

"So, Jackson," said Cam as they all moved towards the door. "How're you going to tell her?"

Daniel shrugged, "I'll think of something."

"What about that new Italian restaurant?" suggested Sam. "Il Fiore Bianco. Vala likes Italian food."

Daniel grimaced, "It's a bit upscale, isn't it?" he objected, thinking of all the different ways Vala could create a scene. Knowing her, it would be something he hadn't considered, something uniquely Vala.

"She'll love it," urged Jool from the back of the tight-knit group moving through the hallways. "It'd be a real treat for her. She hardly ever gets out of the mountain."

**l**

The sun was directly overhead the small village by the time that they had covered all of the things that Faith could think of and a few more. The most important thing was to get the Cimmerians settled into their new home as quickly as possible. Brock, Gunnarr and Val would be returning to the Cimmerians still camped near the 'Gate with water, food and news while the others concentrated on collecting the bundles of clothing strewn about the village. Hildar's reaction had convinced Faith that it would be better if there weren't constant reminders of the previous tenants lying around the place.

Brock had been charged with approaching Vealdr about a ceremonial funeral, as the most diplomatic choice. Ursula had little time for Thor's Helgi, and he in his turn had even less for Gunnarr. Brock was under strict instructions to take care in how he approached Vealdr; Faith had met similar characters in her time in prison and knew how dangerous they could be if they felt they were being sidelined. At the same time, almost all of the Cimmerians present had urged the slayers to continue to foster the belief that Thor had sent them to lead his people to this planet, at least for the time being; with Hildar the only dissenting voice; and it was vital that Vealdr not discover even a hint of the truth. He was already suspicious enough.

Once the village was clear the Cimmerians could be moved in, and the responsibility for them would be off Faith's hands, although she had promised Brock that she would go with him to examine the approach to the village and how it could best be defended in case of an attack by the 'Gate now that the Cimmerians could no longer rely on Thor's hammer to protect them. The slayers would help the Cimmerians to explore the surrounding area over the next few days in order to assess their assets, and would be supplying them with necessities, if they could, from the cart of goodies they'd been given in Camelot. Elifa, Val and Liss were the only exceptions to this rule. Much to her private dismay, Val would be nursing the sick and injured, with Elifa to help her, while Liss was under orders to find out if the small spaceship could be repaired, and examine the small hoard of Ancient objects Faith and Nya had stuffed into it for anything useful. Even Jem and Halstrom were expected to help out.

"Why me?" Jem had groused when he had heard that he was expected to help gather the discarded clothing. "I was going to bed. I'm tired."

"We all are," Faith had told him unsympathetically. "But it's like jetlag. You gotta push your way through it or you'll find yourself waking up in the middle of the night for the rest of the week."

At Halstrom's suggestion, the various suits of Ori armour mixed in with the piles of clothing would be set aside for the use of the Cimmerian men in battle. The staff weapons would also be given to the Cimmerians as not one slayer liked the idea of using Ori weapons.

Before the meeting officially broke up, Kay made coffee for everyone who wanted one, steeping a mixture of herbs for those unfamiliar and unwilling to try the brew. As the conversation relaxed back into a social one, Faith casually got up under the pretext of helping Kay with this planet's rudimentary version of mugs and lit a cigarette.

She caused quite a stir amongst the Cimmerians when she settled back down in her chair with a relaxed and happy sigh, but the slayers who'd been with her a while took it in their stride, used to Faith's quirks. She would be down to her last eight cigarettes once she'd finished this one, despite her tight rationing, and was determined to enjoy every puff, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet on the table as she allowed her mind to wander.

It wasn't a bad world. Once you got over the wholesale murder of the previous inhabitants it was pretty good. Bit quiet, but the Cimmerians should sort that out. And the good thing about living here was that no-one would look for them. Why bother with a planet when you'd already killed everyone who lived there?

Vealdr could be trouble. Faith recognised the signs. She'd had some of them herself, once upon a time. Still, with Brock, Ursula, Gunnar and Skardhe on their side, it should be easy to deal with him. If they stayed here. Could they live with the Cimmerians?

It would make their lives easier if they had somewhere to fall back to when they were in over their heads, but would the Powers allow it? Faith had no doubt that they'd been guiding her journey so far. Every time she dialled the 'Gate they found another slayer, and whenever someone else did they ended up in the shit. Would they let her return here when she left?

There was only one way to find out, and that was to try it, but Faith was strangely reluctant. It wasn't just her exhaustion that was draining her will to leave; it was the thought of spending more than one night in the same bed, of baths and regular meals, and somewhere safe to leave her stuff. It was like she was a kid again, wanting nothing more than a stable life, and someone had offered it to her. The temptation to snatch the opportunity for herself and the others was almost overwhelming, which was why she was resisting. What if staying here was the wrong thing to do?

She had a bad track record with things that looked too good to be true. It had taken her a long time to figure out that they were usually rotten underneath; most of her life; but she was still tempted to reach out and grab at them while she had the chance, often getting badly burnt in the process. It had been a painful process, but life had taught her to be wary of such things. Faith was having difficulty seeing the worm in the core of this apple though.

Way she saw it, it all hinged on whether or not the Powers let them come back here, and there was no way to test that without leaving. They'd promised to stick around for a few days, which would give them the chance to chill for a while, and rest up before they left. Once they were off-world, then she'd try dialling back, see if they could make a connection to this place. If they could then Faith planned to make this place their fall-back destination at the very least, so that if any of the girls got lost or separated from the others then they could come back here and know that the others would come get them as soon as they could. In the meantime though, there wasn't much point worrying about it, and it couldn't hurt to score brownie points with the locals by making themselves useful.

"Right," said Faith, stubbing the cigarette butt out on the tabletop and draining the last of her coffee. "Sooner we start, sooner we finish. Let's get to it."

**l**

When Jool entered her office she discovered that the rest of her team was already there. It was becoming a common occurrence, the others seemed to gravitate naturally to her office, and Jool didn't blink an eyelid at their presence, hanging her lab coat up on the hat-stand just inside the door while Andrew and Jon continued their argument about which was better, Family Guy or The Simpsons. Oz was refereeing the spat, an amused smile lingering in the corners of his mouth. He caught Jool's eye and nodded at her. She smiled back.

Vala was there too, doing something on Jool's computer. Jool almost dreaded finding out what. Last time she'd caught Vala on her computer she'd been engrossed in online pornography, an invention that had mesmerised the alien. Whatever it was that she was doing this time clearly wasn't as interesting as midget porn, because she looked up at Jool's entry, grinning at her and waving her over. Jool went, mainly to look over Vala's shoulder and see what she was doing. For once it was innocuous; Vala was writing her report on their recent mission to P3X-29J.

"How do you spell incorrigible?" Vala wanted to know.

Jool spelt it for her, grabbing the stack of paperwork that had accumulated on her desk in her absence and settling into one of the armchairs she'd appropriated for the room. Most of the pile consisted of reports for her to read and she separated them out from the forms that needed her signature, setting the smaller sheaf aside to begin reading the reports. She was halfway through the first one when Vala announced that she was done, switching Jool's computer off with a flourish. Jool looked up, waiting for her to move so that she could get her own report written.

"What are we doing tonight?" Vala asked her instead, leaning forward with her elbows on Jool's desk. "I was thinking movie. The Disney DVD's I ordered arrived yesterday."

"What did you get?" Jool asked curiously.

"All of them," Vala told her.

"All of them?"

"You said I should watch them," Vala said defensively.

"I didn't mean you should run out and buy them all," said Jool. "What if you don't like them? Besides, I was thinking of patrolling tonight."

"You were?" Jon broke off his argument with Andrew to ask.

"I'll come with you," Vala said excitedly. "We can watch one when we get back."

"Yeah," Jool replied to Jon. "I'm in the mood to kill something."

"Understandable," commented Oz.

"And Disney doesn't really go well with slaying," Jool said to Vala. "Why don't you stay here instead?"

Vala frowned, leaning back in Jool's computer chair, "I thought you liked Disney movies. I don't understand... Don't you want me to come?"

"It's nothing personal," Jool rushed to reassure her. "It's just I feel like going solo tonight."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Vala asked, concerned.

"Very," Jon replied grimly on Jool's behalf. "No way, Doc. You go with us, or you don't go."

"You can't stop me," Jool told him, crossing her arms.

"No," Jon admitted. "But I can ask General Landry not to let you out of the mountain."

"As though that could stop me," scoffed Jool. "I could escape with my eyes shut."

"Five bucks says you couldn't," bet Jon.

"You're on," said Jool, leaning forward to offer him her hand. They shook on it and Jool asked, "Now?"

"Why not?" said Jon. "No time like the present, after all."

But there was a knock on the door before any of them could do anything more than stand, and Daniel Jackson poked his head into the room. He blinked a couple of times at the sight of them all on their feet and already facing the door, and adjusted his glasses with one hand.

"Uh... Vala?" he said tentatively. "Have you got a minute?"

"Um..." Vala looked around at SG-13, torn between two conflicting desires. "Well..."

"We'll wait 'til you get back," Jon generously offered.

Vala beamed happily. "Of course, Daniel darling," she said sunnily, skipping forward and out of the room.

Jool sighed heavily, moving round her desk to collapse back in her computer chair. Vala had clearly been more rattled by her recent encounter with Adria than she liked to admit, the former Goa'uld was being unusually clingy and manic today, seeking an external distraction from her inner turmoil. It had been difficult to make excuses not to spend the evening with her without raising suspicions but hopefully Jool'd pulled it off. Daniel was probably asking her to dinner right now. Meanwhile, Jool was feeling the after-effects of too little sleep and a slayer dream on top of yesterday's stressful and concussion-inducing events.

"Doc?" SG-13's Captain sounded worried. "You okay?"

"Yeah," sighed Jool, pushing her unruly curls back from her face. "Just tired."

"Didn't know you knew the meaning of the word," Jon tried to rally her spirits. "You gotta be looking forward to pulling a Houdini though."

"I think I had a dream last night," the Doc admitted slowly in reply, a haunted look on her face. "Adria was there, she was on fire. So was Earth. The fire it consumed everyone."

"Sounds like a nightmare to me," said Jon. "Probably brought on by yesterday. Or strong cheese. Did you eat any strong cheese yesterday?"

"Faith was there..." the Doc said slowly. "And the Cheeseman."

"The Cheeseman?" Andrew sat up straight, grabbing the notepad and pen beside him. "What did he say?"

"The cheese is dead. Long live the cheese," the Doc told him.

"Huh?" Jon was officially confused.

"Tell me everything," Andrew said excitedly, pen poised over paper.

"Wait a minute," interrupted Jon. "Who's the Cheeseman? And why are you writing down the Doc's nightmare?"

"Slayers have prophetic dreams," Oz explained quietly.

"Oh," said Jon. He considered that for a moment, remembering Jonas' brush with precognition a few years ago, "Cool."

**l**

Halstrom wandered alone through the town, picking up piles of clothing as he went and stuffing them into the coarse woven sack he had been given. He moved mechanically, barely noticing his surroundings beyond the grey film of exhaustion that veiled his eyes, and his mind moved almost as sluggishly as his body. He'd tried the bitter brew the others called coffee, but had been unable to stomach it, despite its invigorating effects. The mouthful he'd swallowed had long since worn off, leaving him more tired than ever.

He was getting too old to stay up all night, he thought vaguely as he drifted into one of the houses that lined the street he had been assigned.

The houses had to be checked so that the Cimmerians could move into them, although the majority of the population seemed to have been gathered in the main square when they died, rather than in their homes or on the streets. Still, scattered here and there were the small pathetic piles of abandoned clothing. Halstrom tried not to think about their owners as his gathered them up but it was difficult not to, especially when he found children's clothes. Instead he tried to think about how helping people he'd been sworn to kill should feel strange and wrong, and pondered why it didn't.

He'd grown up in a society where people competed to demonstrate to their Gods who was the most loyal and obedient, where those same Gods didn't hesitate to strike down those who strayed from the path they had dictated. Rebellion against the Ori was unthought-of, although Halstrom had heard whispers of those who'd managed it. Managed it and died for it.

Terrified that the Ori would detect his own seditious thoughts, he had suppressed them, squeezing them down into a seething hot ball of rage and frustration, cradled in a pool of self-loathing deep in the pit of his stomach. He had carried it with him wherever he went, and then the Ori, in their infinite wisdom, had sent him here. To a place where the people defied the Ori, and his Gods were reduced to using their own people, the armies they had created, to crush that defiance on their behalf.

They had brought forth to Orici, whose coming portended the End of All Days, to fight their war for them and, unbelievably, the people of this galaxy still fought back. Cimmeria had been the third world he had visited in his time in the Ori army, and on each of the two other planets a detachment of soldiers had had to be left behind, to ensure the local populace's continued compliance. He suspected that each of the Cimmerians would fight to the death rather than accept any God other than their Thor. He had not seen or heard anything to make him believe otherwise.

Idly, he wondered what God Faith worshipped, and if he'd ever find out. He didn't want to offend her by asking. He knew next to nothing of Clava, only what the Priors had said of them during Prostration and the little he had been able to glean from Faith's impassioned speech aboard the mothership above Cimmeria, refuting the Orici and the mantle of Clava in favour of that of Slayer. Slayer or Clava, it mattered not; Faith and the women she had gathered around her were dedicated to destroying the Ori, and Halstrom knew enough to recognise a formidable warrior in each and possibly, just possibly, a chance to turn the tide of power in his home galaxy in them all.

So he had cast his lot in with them, for better or for worse, and despite his exhaustion felt better for it. He was profoundly grateful that Faith had spared his life, and he was determined to show himself worthy of the trust she had put in him. Right now, apparently, he could best do that by collecting clothes.

So Halstrom forced himself to keep working. If he'd been familiar with the term, even he would have agreed that he was acting on autopilot and so it's understandable that, on opening a door into a room of one of the houses, he noticed only the pile of clothes in the centre of the room. He had entered the room and picked up the clothes, turning to leave, before he recognised the contents of the room.

Books...!

Floor to ceiling, overflowing onto tables, stacked up on the floor, books were everywhere. Scrolls hadn't been neglected either, they were stacked in a long rack that stretched the length of one wall and dotted around the room...

Halstrom turned slowly on his heel, his mouth hanging open in reverent awe. The half-full sack fell from his numb fingers, landing on the hardwood floor with a thump, but Halstrom barely noticed.

Books...

**l**

Miraculously, Jool was alone in her office. The details of her dream had had an electrifying effect on the men of her team; Andrew had hurried to call Cleveland, passing her dream up the Watchers Council chain in accordance with standard procedure, while the Captain had gone to tell General Landry about it, leaving her with orders to type up a report on her dream to give to the General. Oz had clearly decided to stay with her, watching her quietly out of the corner of his eye as he pretended to have his nose buried in a book, but Colonel Carter had put paid to that plan when she stuck her head round the door and requested Oz's presence in one of the storage rooms to help with the mothership data they'd received. Reluctantly, he'd gone with her, leaving Jool alone.

She took advantage of the opportunity to liberate a couple of Mars Bars and a KitKat from her secret stash of goodies, and sat down to write her report. But it wouldn't come. She sat in front of her computer munching her way through the chocolate, willing the words to come. She could recall every detail with sickening clarity and yet the words to describe it hovered just out of her reach...

Sweeping the empty wrappers into the bin she stood, intending to retrieve more, but the door to her office flew open as Vala burst into the room, an excited Andrew at her heels, just as Jool opened the filing cabinet in question. She quickly slammed the drawer shut.

"Guess what!" Andrew said fervently. "Oh! You'll never guess!"

"What?" asked Jool, a sick feeling rising in her stomach.

"Well..." Vala said coyly, stretching the words out with a happy grin on her face.

"Vala's got a date!"Andrew burst out over the top of her, clapping his hands as he bounced up and down. "Yay!"

"With Daniel!" Vala was quick to point out. "He just asked me! That's what all the 'have you got a minute' was all about. Of course it took him a while to get to the point, but then that's my Daniel."

"That's, uh, great," Jool said weakly, grabbing the back of her computer chair in an attempt to find some sort of stability in the world. The chair rotated under her hand and she snatched her hand away, slowly sinking into the chair as she asked, "Are you sure, um, he said date?"

"Well, not in so many words," admitted Vala, her fingers twisting together. "But Andrew assures me that dinner means date! As does coffee, movies, ice-cream and D&D games, whatever they are. But not bowling."

"No," agreed Andrew, shaking his head. "Jool, he's taking her to Il Fiore Bianco! It's the fanciest restaurant in town. You have to come help us pick out an outfit."

"I've got to write a report," Jool proffered a feeble excuse, waving her hand at her computer monitor. "I'll come when it's finished."

"Promise?" asked Vala, bouncing slightly.

"Promise," promised Jool.

"Good!" replied Vala, beaming. Whirling, she grabbed Andrew's hand, "Come on, Andrew!"

"Andrew!" Jool called out, remembering suddenly. "What did Robin say?"

"None of his girls have had it but he'll pass it on when he'd got a chance," Andrew told her, lingering in the doorway to impart the information. "They're a tad busy at the moment."

"Apocalypse?" Jool asked warily. It wasn't the season for them, but you never knew when one was going to pop up.

"No," said Andrew, much to Jool's relief. "The old-school watcher stationed there, Sir Leighton's gone missing."

"What?" Jool demanded hoarsely as Andrew allowed Vala to finally pull him away, half-rising out of her seat. Mind blank with shock, sank slowly back down.

Cyril Leighton...

He was one of her Guardian's cronies. He'd bought her a pony for her eighth birthday, and told her Guardian that a slayer should know how to ride. For her twenty-first birthday, when there'd been no hope of her being naturally called as a slayer, he'd paid for her to learn how to dance – everything from break-dancing to the waltz. All the moves she'd longed to know as a child, whirling in circles in her Guardian's ballroom, making herself so giddy that she forgot for one brief moment of happiness that she might grow up to be the Slayer and so didn't have time to learn to dance.

Well she was a slayer now, and Sir Cyril had got the Hellmouth posting he had always wanted and more slayers to Watch than he'd ever dreamt of. Had it killed him?

Before she knew what she was doing, the phone was in her hand and ringing in her ear.

"Cleveland," the voice that answered was young, female, and clearly in a hurry.

"Is Robin there?" asked Jool.

"He's busy," came the curt reply.

"It's about Sir Cyril," said Jool, twining the phone cord in her finger. "I'm a friend of the family," she added, but the phone on the other end had already clattered down onto a hard surface.

"Robin!" the young voice yelled. "Some British chick about Cyril."

A click as another phone was picked up, and a male voice said, "Hello?" Then, muffled but still loud enough to make Jool wince, "I've got it, Kelsey!"

"Robin Wood?" Jool asked.

"Yes," he sounded impatient.

"Lady Buxted-Wilson," Jool identified herself before he could ask who she was. "I'm a friend of Sir Cyril's. I just heard... What happened?"

Robin Wood sighed before he replied, and something creaked in the background. "He was snatched from his apartment after yesterday's patrol," he told Jool. "We don't know by who."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Jool asked helplessly, knowing full well that the answer would probably be no.

"Not unless you're a witch," he said bluntly. "With Willow gone we're having to rely on local sources and they're not exactly reliable."

"What?" Jool frowned as the Captain entered the room. Catching sight of her face, he started to back out of the room but she waved him forward, pointing at the phone in her hand. "Willow's gone? Gone where?"

"Where are _you_ posted?" Robin sounded curious now. "You are with the Council, aren't you?"

"I'm a slayer," Jool told him. "What's going on?"

"I thought everyone got the memo," said Robin, papers rustling on his end of the line. "Dawn was kidnapped by interdimensional demons and Buffy and Willow have gone after her."

"What?" demanded Jool. "When?"

"A couple of weeks ago," replied Robin. "Look, I really don't have time for this. If you don't mind, I've got to go convince a voodoo priest it's in his best interests to work with us."

"I work with Andrew Wells," Jool blurted and the Captain's gaze sharpened. She tore her eyes away from his, dropping them to the surface of her desk, "He knows magic."

"How quickly can you get here?" Robin was focussed and intent now.

"Uhh..." guiltily, Jool looked up to meet the Captain's eyes. "I'll let you know."

"Sooner, rather than later," Robin said firmly.

"I'll talk to you soon," Jool promised. "Bye."

"What the hell was that about, Doc?" asked the Captain as soon as the phone was back in its cradle.

"That was Robin Wood," Jool told him. "In Cleveland. One of his watchers has gone missing and he needs a magic user."

"So?" the Captain shrugged. "I'm sure he'll find one. Why doesn't Willow help out?"

"Willow's unavailable," evaded Jool.

"Why?" he pressed.

"She and Buffy are in another dimension," Jool admitted reluctantly. "Apparently Dawn, Buffy's sister, was kidnapped."

"And taken to a different dimension?" he questioned before chuckling suddenly. "Even Space-Monkey never managed that."

"Speaking of Daniel," said Jool, glad that the door was shut. "Word of warning; Vala thinks he's asked her out on a date tonight."

"But he hasn't?" he checked.

"No," said Jool. "He invited her out to tell her she made SG-1."

"Should be fun to watch," the Captain grinned and Jool's stomach did a backflip.

"But," she protested despite her body's weakness. "Sir Cyril..."

"That the watcher?" he asked shrewdly, propping a hip on her desk. "What's the matter, Doc? Ex-boyfriend?"

"He's seventy-four," Jool informed him icily. "He's like my Grandfather!"

He straightened, and she could tell that her reaction had surprised him. "You serious about helping out?" he asked quietly.

"Extremely," she informed him curtly, opening a drawer just so that she could bang it shut again.

"I'll go tell Landry we need a leave of absence," he said.

Taken aback by his sudden change of heart, Jool stared up at him, her heart in her throat. "Thank you," she managed to say.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, breaking eye contact with her and turning away as he replied, "Don't mention it, Doc."

**l**

Alone in her room Chaia disconsolately swung her legs back and forth, watching them as they dangled off the edge of her bed. The young girl was both bored and lonely. She hadn't seen Tomin all day. Hadn't seen anyone. Apart from the Smelly Man, who'd brought her midday meal and stood behind her while she ate it. He'd stunk so bad she hadn't been hungry, but he was dressed the same as the Mean Lady's Bad Man so she'd forced down every bite.

Now, feeling queasy, she sat on her bed, waiting for Tomin to come back. He had to come back. He'd promised he would. And if her mother was on the planet she could see out of the window then Chaia just knew that he'd bring her back to Chaia. She was sure of it. He would... and then they'd all be together.

**l**

The Odyssey beamed SG-13 into a deserted alleyway in Cleveland, a couple of blocks from the Council house. Not familiar with Cleveland, and unsure which direction was the right one to take, Jon hesitated.

"This way," said Oz, pushing past the others to stand in front.

"How do you **_do _**that?" Jon wondered admiringly.

"Been here before," was Oz's terse reply.

"Huh," said Jon. "That'd explain it."

SG-13 moved out together, sticking close despite the sunlight spilling into the mouth of the alleyway. It was Jon's first time on a Hellmouth, and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end as his body battled to take flight or fight, a deep-rooted survival instinct kicking in. He suppressed the feeling, forcing himself to concentrate on the mission at hand, and following them others.

They were all dressed in civvies, which was supposed to help them blend into the city surroundings. Personally, Jon thought he'd done a good job in jeans and a flannel shirt. It was unfortunate that he'd forgotten that most teenagers wouldn't be seen dead in flannel. Compared to the others, his outfit was relatively tame; Andrew had opted for a three-piece tweed suit and opera cloak, Oz was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt that clashed badly with his bright red hair, and for some unfathomable reason the Doc had opted for tight brown leather, and not a lot of it at that. Over the top of skin-tight pants and a halter-neck she wore a long brown trench coat that flared out dramatically from her narrow waist to swirl in flowing folds around her booted ankles. All in all, they made an unusual-looking group, but the people of Cleveland were inured to the unusual.

It didn't take them long to reach the Council building, a large and sprawling Victorian mansion set back from the street. The only thing to set it apart from its neighbours, and simultaneously announce the building's purpose, were the crosses soldered into the design of the wrought iron gate. Oz undid the latch with a metallic click and pushed the gate open, entering the grounds. The rest of SG-13 followed close behind him.

The front door opened before they reached it, held open by a sullen-looking teenaged girl with short black hair that had a vivid streak of blue running through it. She stared at them and SG-13 stared back.

"Hi," said Jon. "We heard you had some problems finding a decent conjuror, thought we'd stop by. Lend a hand. That kind of thing."

"Robin!" the girl yelled suddenly, turning her head to bellow into the house. "Visitors!"

One by one SG-13 filed into the large house, and the girl's sullen look dropped away as they did, replaced by one that was merely suspicious. "I'm Amber," she told them gruffly. "Robin'll be down in a minute."

Turning, she left them there, alone in the entrance hall. The four team-mates looked at one another, and then spread out, carefully covering the rooms various entrances between them.

"Nice people," Jon commented, distracted by a shiny metal ball tucked into a niche in the wall. "Real hospitable."

"Can you blame us?" the masculine voice came from above and they looked up to see a tall African-American male descending the staircase. "One of our own was kidnapped from his home. It's hardly surprising we're suspicious of strangers. Hello, Andrew."

"Hi, Robin!" Andrew waved at him, grinning manically.

"Oz, always a pleasure," Robin greeted the short werewolf next, as he gained the ground floor, holding his hand out to him.

"Likewise," replied Oz, shaking hands.

"And you must be Lady Buxted-Wilson," Robin said with a smile, turning to Jool.

"Call me Jool," she told him with a warm grin as they shook hands.

Jon sputtered incoherently, "Lady _what_?"

"I did tell you when we first met," Jool calmly told him. "Mr Wood..."

"Please," interrupted Robin. "Call me Robin."

"Very well," said Jool, dimpling. "Robin, this is Captain O'Neil, our boss."

"Captain?" Robin said sceptically, the experienced eye of a high school principle assessing the youthful Captain's age and finding it lacking. "Really?"

"Really," Jon replied in a monotone, and then relented a moment later. "It's a long story."

"They usually are," Robin said in a weary voice. "Andrew, how long do you need to cast a locator spell?"

"Half an hour," replied Andrew. "An hour, max."

"We're setting up in the gym," Robin told him. "Lots of space there. That okay with you?"

"Sure," Andrew agreed readily, allowing himself to be towed from the room.

Exchanging glances, the rest of his team followed him.

**l**

Sitting in front of her dressing table, Vala hummed lightly to herself as she painted her fingernails a deep blue to match the top she and Andrew had picked out for her to wear. Her hair framed her face in large rollers; Andrew had explained exactly how she should dress it for her date. He had even tracked down the large cream flower that waited in a cup of water for her to finish titivating. The only thing he hadn't had time to do before he had been called to the briefing room was choose her shoes, but Vala had her eye on a pair of black stiletto ankle boots that would go perfectly with her tight black pants. Not very practical, but very sexy, and Vala didn't expect to do much running in a restaurant.

Catching sight of the time, she began to wave her fingers in the air, blowing on them to make them dry quicker. For someone who was perpetually late, Daniel could be irrationally anal when it came to Vala and punctuality. She wanted to be ready and waiting when he arrived to pick her up. She was going to do her upmost to make tonight perfect, a shining memory to look back on in years to come. It was her very first date, after all!

**l**

"How's it going?"

Liss looked up at Faith from the damaged engine of the Ancient spaceship with a disgruntled expression on her face that spoke volumes. The Langaran slayer pushed the engine back into the ship with an audible click, standing and dusting off the seat of her pants as she replied, "Not good."

"Bust?" Faith asked.

"I might be able to fix it in a week or so if I had replacement parts, tools and a computer to interface with their system," complained Liss. "As it is, we're talking months of work and no guarantee it won't just make things worse."

"What about the stuff we grabbed? Any a that any good?" Faith was aware that she was clutching at straws now, but she didn't care. They needed the edge the ship gave them.

"To be honest, I haven't had a chance to look at any of it yet," Liss admitted. "I can start cataloguing it now if you want..."

"Nah," said Faith. "Don't bother. Kay's gonna serve dinner any minute now."

"Is it that late already?" asked Liss, surprised. Where had the time gone? "What about the refugees? Are they-?"

"Moving in as we speak," Faith told her. "You seen Hal?"

"No," Liss' tightly controlled and carefully neutral voice told Faith that she was perfectly happy with that fact.

"He's probably passed out somewhere," sighed Faith. "Knew I shoulda insisted on the Buddy system but we had too much ground to cover."

"Buddy system?" questioned Liss, intrigued.

"Teams of two," Faith explained succinctly. "That way everyone's got someone to watch their back. I'd better go find him."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Liss generously offered.

"Nah," Faith said again. "You go get washed up. Won't take me long to find him."

The two slayers parted amicably, Liss to go inside the house and beg some warm water from Kay so that she could scrub some of the dirt off before their evening meal and Faith out of the gate in the wall, shutting it behind her on her way to go find Hal. The distant sound of chattering voices murmured their way through the streets as Faith made her silent way to Hal's assigned area of the village, and the sound lifted her heart unexpectedly as it dispelled the eerie silence hanging over the no-longer deserted village.

This, moving the Cimmerians here, was a good thing. Wasn't it?

**l**

"...ask again! What do you think you are doing?"

Finally the irritating sound penetrated Halstrom's absorption, coalescing into an angry male voice. Reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the pages in front of him, Halstrom looked up, into the furious eyes of the man standing in the library doorway.

"Hmm...?" Halstrom enquired with raised eyebrows, his mind more in the past that the books had revealed to him than the present.

"Who are you?" the man demanded. "I don't recognise you."

"Halstrom of Gar Torrin," Halstrom introduced himself, standing so that he and the clearly furious man were on more equal terms although he didn't bother to put the book he held down, slipping a finger between the pages to mark his place.

"You're not from Cimmeria," the man accused.

"No," Halstrom agreed patiently, beginning to wonder if the man was slow in the head as well as rude.

"What are you doing in my house?" the man wanted to know.

"Your house?" Halstrom was surprised and disappointed. He cast a wistful look around the groaning shelves and gently placed the book he held down on a nearby table, reverently stroking his finger over the cover.

The man's eyes narrowed, giving him the look of a sharp-faced rodent, "You travel with the Valkyries, do you not?"

"Uh..." said Halstrom, not sure how he should answer that. What were Valkyries? Halstrom had only heard of Slayers and Clava – he had no idea that Valkyrie was another name for those women chosen.

"There you are, Hal," Faith said with relief, seeing only the back of the man with him until she drew level with him. Recognition hit with a sickening lurch. "Vealdr. Hey. Uh... how's it hanging?"

Vealdr switched the focus of his interrogation to Faith, "You sent this man to my house to spy on me?"

"Your house?" Faith frowned, taking in Hal's apologetic face, and the way his hand was still resting reverently on top of the book he'd been reading before he'd been disturbed. "Who told you this was your house?"

"No-one needed to tell me," Vealdr said stiffly. "This is the best house in this area of the city..."

"No, no, no, no, no," Faith told him. "This is Hal's place." Never mind that she'd wanted Hal where she could keep an eye on him; this room was clearly important to him and she wasn't going to let Vealdr take anything away from one of her people, not even someone she wasn't sure she trusted. It would set a dangerous precedent.

"You... dare to...!" Vealdr sputtered angrily.

Of course, she couldn't afford to piss him off either.

"We figured you'd want to stay in the temple," Faith said over the top of him, grateful that the small village had had a temple. Still, she supposed the Goa'uld who'd ruled the people who'd lived here had wanted somewhere to stay in case they needed to visit.

"Temple?" intrigued, the bluster abruptly drained from Vealdr as he preened self-importantly.

"It needs rededicatin' to Thor an' all that," Faith said with a casual shrug, giving him some work to keep him busy, and out of her hair. "An' it's not very big, but it's shiny." Practically gold-plated.

"Take me to it," Vealdr commanded, drawing himself up to his full height.

"Sure," Faith said agreeably. "Hal, Kay wanted me to ask if you're eating dinner with us tonight?" she gave Hal a loaded look that threatened pain if he said no.

"Uh... sure," said Halstrom, a little shaken by the glare. "I'll walk with you. I'd like to see the temple."

"Great," Faith said through gritted teeth, wishing he'd make his own way back. They really didn't need Vealdr finding out he'd been an Ori soldier, not this early in the relationship. "Let's go then."

Hal cast a lingering look behind him as the three of them left the library, a look that Faith recognised instantly. She'd seen it on faces before. Usually male, British faces but Robin, Little-D and Red had all been known to wear it from time to time. It explained so much. Not just why he had a fascination with the house, but why he made a terrible soldier while being a competent fighter. Hal was a watcher-type.

Well, good. They'd needed one, and one with first-hand experience of the Ori was gonna be invaluable. As long as he didn't turn on them.

**l**

Jon stood at the back of the room watching the young watcher sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, surrounded by silent ranks of expectant slayers, the intensity of their focus adding to the tension that filled the room, pressing against the walls. Andrew was muttering in a language Jon vaguely thought might be Latin, his eyes shut as he combined two different coloured vials of what looked like sand into a silver bowl in front of him. The bowl was resting on a street map of Cleveland and the surrounding area that, apparently, would show where Cyril Leighton was being held. If Andrew did it right.

Jon frowned as he tried to translate Andrew's words, using his sketchy knowledge of Ancient. Window... to the... tree? That couldn't be right. He shook his head, acknowledging the fact that he was no good at dead languages. Beside him, the Doc glanced curiously up at him but Jon ignored her, keeping his focus on the arcane ritual being enacted in front of him. Daniel would love this crap.

And he so wasn't going to think about the treacherous so-called best friend of his former life. Not now. Not ever, if he could help it.

Still muttering Latin, Andrew opened his eyes, picking up the bowl in front of him. He tossed the contents up into the air and, impossibly, the cloud of sand hung in front of him for a moment, swirling lazily before it fell. An expectant hush filled the room as Andrew bent over the map.

"What happened?" asked Jon, and several slayers turned to stare at him and the two members of his team flanking him.

"Nothing," said Andrew, sounding surprised about it. Heads snapped back to stare at him again and Jon shivered, grateful to have their unnerving focus off of him.

Several people spoke up at the same time, all plying Andrew with their frantic questions, but Jon's voice cut over all of them as he bluntly cut to the chase, "What does that mean?"

"Well... uh, it could mean that he's not in Cleveland," Andrew said. "Or..." he lowered his eyes, reluctant to finish his sentence.

"Kelsey, go fetch the maps from the library," Robin ordered, quietly taking control of the situation. "Then I want you all to start getting ready for patrol." A chorus of groans greeted this statement and Robin's face turned stern. "Would Cyril want you to stop patrolling?" he asked, dragging a reluctant 'no' from the slayers. "Would Cyril let you stop patrolling?" The 'no' was more definite this time. "Then what makes you think I will, hmm? Somewhere out there is the piece of scum that snatched an old man from his home, and every vampire or demon you meet out there is an opportunity to find out who he is and where he took him. Think about that."

As the slayers started to head for the door, Robin made his way over to Oz, Jon and the Doc. He held Jon's gaze for a moment longer than necessary, curiosity warring with suspicion in his eyes, before he turned to Oz.

"You up for swinging by Cyril's apartment?" he asked the short werewolf. "See if you can pick up something my girls missed?"

"I can do that," agreed Oz, nodding.

"Good," said Robin, relaxing slightly. "I'll send Kelsey's team with you."

"That's okay," Jon shrugged as he butted into the conversation, sending an insincere smile Robin's way. "We'll manage."

"You're... going with him?" asked Robin.

"Last time I checked, that's what being a team meant," Jon replied glibly, barely looking at Robin. "Going places together... doing... stuff. That kind of thing."

"Okay," Robin agreed slowly. "But I'm still sending Kelsey's tem with you. Sorry Captain, standard protocol. I'm sure you understand."

"Yeah," said Jon, staring flatly at Robin. "Sure. You betcha."

**l**

The kitchen blazed with light, burning candles scattered liberally on every surface. The fire crackled merrily, adding its heat and light to the stuffy room, and the windows were thrown open to let the night air in. The slayers were grouped around the table, in various exhausted poses. Nya actually had her head pillowed on her arms and her eyes shut as she sprawled across the table. By the fire, Kay was stirring a fragrant pottage, the ladle clanking against the sides of the large copper cauldron. Wearily, Liss turned her head to look at her.

"Can we eat yet?" she asked, her voice plaintive.

"Not until the others arrive," Kay replied firmly, tapping the ladle against the edge of the cauldron to knock off the excess liquid before she swung the large copper pot back over the fire.

"Where are they?" whined Liss as her stomach growled loudly.

"Mallie went to go get the horse back," Jem said in a lethargic tone.

"And Faith's gone to find Hal," Kay added patiently. "We'll eat as soon as everyone's here."

"Urrgh!" groaned Nya, opening her eyes. "Why do we have to wait for him?"

"Because _Faith _said so," Liss replied bitterly.

"No, she didn't," Kay said calmly. "_I_ said so, and if you've got a problem with that then I suggest we take it outside."

"I'm fine," Liss said hurriedly, thoroughly exhausted by even the thought of standing, let alone going outside and fighting. "No problem with that."

"Good," Kay said with a tight smile, her knuckles white as she gripped the ladle.

"Can I go and sit with my father?" Elifa asked.

"No," Kay insisted, slamming the ladle down. "Dinnertime is together-time, understood?"

A chorus of reluctant agreement greeted her declaration, but Liss' eyes narrowed and the Langaran slayer frowned.

"Who put you in charge?" she asked suspiciously.

The door banged back on its hinges and Mallie rushed into the room, causing the slayers gathered around the table to perk up, until they realised that it was only one of the three people that they were waiting for.

"Faith," Mallie said excitedly. She looked around the room, frowning, "Where's Faith?"

"She is not here," Nya groaned into her arms.

"We're not allowed to eat until she gets here," Elifa told Mallie mournfully.

"I have to find her!" Mallie's said hurriedly, heading for the door.

"Sit down," Kay said resolutely, getting in her way. "She'll be back in a minute and there's no sense in running after her."

"But-But, she has to come now!" Mallie insisted. "She has to stop them!"

"Stop who?" asked Val, straightening.

"The Cimmerians!" wailed Mallie. "They're killing horses for meat!"

"Ah," grimaced Kay. "I take it that means you don't want dinner?"

**l**

Returning to his captive after a lengthy gourmet meal, Ba'al was disappointed to see that he showed no marked improvement. Despite Ba'al's liberal use of the healing device, a magnanimous gesture on his behalf, the old man's mental condition had steadily deteriorated throughout the day until he was no longer coherent. Ba'al had generously given him time to recuperate, but the feeble human showed no signs of recovery. If anything, he was worse. Instead of rocking from side to side as he mumbled his inanities, he was now walking in a tight circle, listing inwards, round and round until he began to make Ba'al feel dizzy. Worse, he had yet to say anything of import, even in his gibbering madness. Ba'al was beginning to lose all patience with him.

He was forced to concede that it might perhaps be within the realms of possibility that he had over-extended himself. Kidnapping the watcher had been a dangerous move; he had known that at the time; one that carried the risk of exposing himself to undue attention from the Watchers Council. Had Cyril Leighton, the supposed weak link in the Cleveland chain, co-operated with him then the chance that Ba'al might have jeopardised his safety here on Earth would not have concerned him even half as much as it did now. Cyril Leighton was rapidly becoming a liability.

Ba'al strode across the bare and functional room to grab hold of Leighton's shoulder and physically restrain him from moving. This close to the man, Ba'al was able to hear what he was muttering as he twitched under Ba'al's controlling hand.

"Error... error... Query...? Query? Query... Erroneous memory..."

Ba'al's eyes flashed with power as he came to the inevitable conclusion. There was only one way Cyril Leighton could help him now.

"Error... Inherent corruption..."

Just one.

**l**

Vala glanced appreciatively around the restaurant Daniel had taken her to as the hostess led the two of them to their table, trying to keep her interest discrete. It was her first time in such an obviously fashionable and expensive environment on Earth. She'd known they existed from the television shows she watched but she hadn't thought there was anything like this in Colorado Springs. Fortunately, the outfit she and Andrew had picked blended in perfectly because Daniel was clearly pulling out all of the stops for their date.

Practically glowing, Vala slipped into the seat the hostess was holding out for her, thanking her for the gesture as Daniel pulled out his own seat and sat.

"Your menu," said the hostess, handing Vala a narrow booklet. She held another out to Daniel, "And for you, sir."

Copying Daniel's example, Vala flipped open the booklet, but quickly lost interest when she couldn't read the language it was written in. Instead, hoping to start the conversational ball rolling, she took another look at their surroundings.

"Fancy," she admired.

"Well, I know you don't get off the base much except for official business, so I thought I'd take you somewhere nice," Daniel said, taking the napkin out of his glass and placing it in his lap before pushing the tall vase between them to the side of the table as Vala hesitantly copied the example he'd set with his napkin.

"Well, I don't mind telling you," Vala confided, folding her hands in her lap and leaning towards him, "I've been looking forward to this little date all day."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a date," Daniel told her, slightly flustered. "It's–"

"Oh, I've watched enough of your television to know what a date is, Daniel," Vala interrupted him, a slight satisfied smile on her lips. "It's a romantic event typified by dinner, movie and/or karaoke and, usually, culminating in a night of..." she shot him a knowing look coupled with a flirty smile that made Daniel glad he was sitting down. "Besides," she shrugged, tossing her hair back over her shoulders. "Andrew was kind enough to inform me of your intentions earlier today." Smiling brightly, Vala returned her attention to the menu she held in her hands. _Conghilie con cozze_...?

"Andrew...?" Daniel repeated, flummoxed. "Wells?" His _intentions_? Daniel was going to have some serious words with Julie Wilson when they got back to the base about the value of keeping your mouth shut. "O-okay, this is... this is definitely _not _a date," Daniel said firmly. "It's-It's two friends and co-workers, out for dinner."

"Oh," said Vala, losing some of her shine. "Well, I–"

"Hi," grinned their fresh-faced waiter as he arrived at their table.

"Hi," Vala returned the greeting.

"Can I start you off with a drink?" he asked them.

"Absolutely," Vala told him, with a slight air of a drowning man grabbing for a lifebuoy.

"Well, tonight's featured martinis are the chocolate, passion fruit and shochu plum," the waiter informed them with eager helpfulness.

"They all sound wonderful," said Vala, stuck for a choice. "So... one of each, then?" she suggested, looking at Daniel.

"Yeah..." Daniel said in a tone that clearly meant no. "I-I think we're gonna pace ourselves. She'll do the... passion fruit." Vala growled playfully at him. "And, um, I'm gonna have the bottled water."

"Sure," said their waiter, writing their order down. He glanced between them before he walked away, clearly amused by the byplay between them but trying to hide it.

"Listen..." said Daniel as Vala opened her mouth to speak. They both stopped, disconcerted.

"Oh," Vala said awkwardly.

"Uh... Let me start," asked Daniel.

"Okay," agreed Vala, folding her hands in her lap again and preparing to listen to him.

"Um..." Daniel stalled, trying to remember the carefully rehearsed speech he'd prepared. Despite years of public speaking, it appeared his ability to memorise what he was going to say had vanished. But he had to say something... "Look, I know it hasn't been easy for you adjusting to your new life here, learning to trust other people and, most importantly, refusing the temptation to fall back on your old ways. But you have worked hard to make a place for yourself with us and dinner tonight is my way of saying thank you. Thank you for-for proving me right when I said we could take a chance on you."

If it wasn't quite everything he'd wanted to say to her it was close enough, especially considering that she'd actually thought this was a date, courtesy of SG-13's interference. He'd thought Doctor Wilson had more sense than that. The British slayer certainly made enough noise about being Vala's friend, so why had she convinced Vala that this was a date when she knew perfectly well that it wasn't? At least his words had gotten through to Vala, who was looking pleased, flattered and a little embarrassed.

"I don't know what to say," Vala admitted, ducking her head even though she was smiling.

"Just say what you were gonna say before I interrupted," Daniel told her, sitting further back in his chair with the confident air of a man who knows he's desired by the woman sitting opposite him.

"Okay," said Vala, leaning forward confidentially. "I need to use the bathroom."

Daniel's confident pose crumpled under the weight of Vala's matter-of-fact statement. "Yeah," he said with the slightest touch of irony in his voice, pointing behind him. "It's..."

"Okay," smiled Vala, standing up and placing her napkin on the table.

She gave him a gentle, playful poke on the cheek as she moved past him, and his answering smile stayed with her as she moved through the large room, toward the archway he'd indicated. Fortunately directions to the bathrooms were clearly marked on the wall, and Vala followed them, towards a bank of payphones mounted on the wall. She barely noticed the man huddled into one of the booths, his head turned towards the receiver he held to one ear, as she strode down the hallway, her mind more involved with dwelling on the evening's progress. She still wasn't convinced this wasn't a date, despite Daniel's words. She'd have to consult Jool when she got back to the base. Jool would know.

The man standing in front of one of the phones hung it up as she drew level, spinning around behind her to grab her and jab a syringe into Vala's neck before she had a chance to do more than grunt in surprise. She groaned as an icy numbness quickly spread out from the site of the injury, turning her limbs to jelly.

Her attacker caught her as she sagged. Pulling one of her arms around his shoulders, he quickly reversed their direction, walking her back the way she'd come. Vala tried to pull away from him, but whatever he'd drugged her with was rapidly sapping her strength and he had no trouble overcoming her feeble attempts.

As they reached the end of the hallway, her waiter walked into view, a tray balanced on one hand. He stared at them with surprise and concern and Vala stared back, trying to convey a message with eyes that felt heavy. Her head lolled as the drug moved through her system.

"She, uh, needs some fresh air," her attacker excused as he led her past the waiter.

From somewhere, Vala summoned the strength to lift her head and meet the waiter's worried eyes. She tried to ask for his help but, "H–" was all that would come out of her mouth.

Inexorably, her kidnapper towed her towards the exit. Outside, a sleek black car waited for them at the kerb, its engine running. The edges of Vala's vision growing dark, she felt like she was moving through mud as the car door opened. The man holding her up tipped her into the car and Vala fell into blackness.


	29. Cogito Ergo Sum:Hic Jacet Sepultus Qetes

**Disclaimi Addendum:**

Harry Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization series of books, and the ginger-addicted dino-men belong to him, not me.

Likewise, I don't own the universe Buffy and Willow have ended up in now. Mega-kudos to anyone who can guess where they've ended up with the scant clues given.

Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer make their appearances courtesy of Red Dwarf, the Grant Naylor coalition and the BBC. I don't own the BBC, no-one does. I don't have a TV licence either.

**A/N:**

This chapter is brought to you by fatigue... your old friend and mine! Any mistakes, grammatical errors, inaccuracies, outright absurdities, obvious plotholes, typos and suchlike are entirely my fault and I apologise in advance. I also greatly appreciate those who point such things out to me so that I can fix them. :) The reason for the fatigue? I shall explain...

On Friday I had exactly 1,347 words of this written, approximately four hundred of which were one-or-two sentence descriptions of scenes. I haven't slept since, so if this author's note (and chapter) seem a little sketchy, blame it on sleep deprivation. And the river of coffee... We love coffee...

I hope you enjoy the plot twists, turns and surprises contained in this chapter.

**Cogito Ergo Sum, ****Part 2: ****Hic Jacet Sepultus Qetesh   
Latin Translation: **_Her__e Lies Buried Qetesh_

Contrary to the rumours he had carefully fostered over the millennia, Ba'al was not a Goa'uld who enjoyed killing for the sake of killing, especially when he had no sarcophagus to revive his victim. In fact, rather than dispatch of Cyril Leighton himself, he delegated one of the Tau'ri lackeys that surrounded him on Earth to do the deed on his behalf, retreating to his laboratory to review the information he had garnered on the Watcher's Council and the girls they guarded. He rationalised his decision by telling himself that he needed to prepare a worst-case scenario in case the Council somehow traced Leighton's abduction and murder to him, but he knew that it was highly unlikely that would ever happen. He also wanted to try to identify another weak link in their organisation to exploit. Perhaps someone else would be more forthcoming that Cyril Leighton had been.

It was in his laboratory that the minion tasked to kill Cyril Leighton found him. He hovered in the doorway, disturbing Ba'al's equilibrium until the Goa'uld looked up, his glowing eyes signalling his displeasure. Aggravatingly, the man didn't flinch, too busy scratching one armpit to care about his employer's displeasure. At the back of his advanced mind Ba'al noted the man's name, Dave Lister he believed, as the man cautiously sniffed his fingernails before approaching.

"What is it?" Ba'al demanded to know.

"Uhh..." said Lister, scratching his dreadlocked head. "You might want to come take a look."

**l**

"Your friend has taken ill."

Daniel looked up from his menu at the waiter still hovering by their table, concern and unease written across his face. It took a few minutes for the man's words to sink in and as they did, Daniel felt panic rising in his chest, tightening it.

"What?" asked Daniel, straightening. "Where is she?"

"Um... she was escorted outside by another gentleman," the waiter admitted with the barest hint of reluctance.

Daniel had dropped his napkin and menu on the table and was out of his chair by the time the waiter had finished speaking. He quickly headed for the door, his heart pounding in his chest. At the forefront of his mind was the thought that the SGC had many enemies, many of whom would jump at the chance to study a former Goa'uld host, especially one who was so loosely attached to the program. Vala's assignment to SG-1 had yet to be announced, at his request, and he was suddenly terrified that he might have left her vulnerable for a moment longer than necessary.

Outside, he looked in vain for her, but the only trace of Vala was the flower she'd been wearing in her hair, lying abandoned on the floor. Daniel gently scooped the fragile flower up, cradling it in his hand as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket with the other. Tucking the phone between his shoulder and ear, he scanned the dark night for any sign of her, absent-mindedly stroking the soft bloom with one finger as he waited for General Landry to pick up.

**l**

Cyril Leighton was a robot. Ba'al had never seen anything like it before. He stared at the corpse in front of him, marvelling at the seamless way his electronic circuitry melded into organic. He even had a heart, nestled in a steel cradle that sent wires through the organ. It was Tau'ri ingenuity at its most inventive, and almost a miracle considering Earth's pitiful technological level.

"Tell me again, what happened?" ordered Ba'al.

"After we dispatched of the prisoner, sir, as per your orders," Lister's constant companion, Arnold Rimmer reported officiously, "His body sort of shimmered strangely..."

"It was dead weird," Lister added from his position in the doorway. He refused to come any closer. The dead robot was giving him the creeps. He was convinced that it was somehow staring at him through its metal faceplate.

Rimmer glared at him before pointedly continuing, "As I was saying, sir, the gentleman shimmered strangely and then turned into the washing machine cum human cum science exhibit you see before you. Sir," he added after a moment's thoughtful pause, throwing Ba'al a snappy salute for good measure.

"That's when he made me come get you," Lister said helpfully from the doorway, earning another glare from Rimmer that he returned with a too-innocent look.

Ba'al stared at the two men with incredulity, wondering how he had come to have two such incompetents in his employ.

"Take it to my laboratory," he said wearily. "I will study it in detail there."

**l**

For once, no-one bugged Faith for stories about Earth before they went to bed. The slayers were exhausted. They weren't aware of it, but most of them were approaching seventy-two hours without sleep and those that had managed to snatch a few hours here and there weren't in much better shape. The only one of them who looked halfway awake was Elifa, so Faith didn't feel too guilty about asking her to take the first watch.

She could have relied on the other Cimmerians to keep a lookout posted to guard against attack through the night but most of them were just as tired as the slayers, having spent the last night racing to reach the Stargate and abandon their own planet to the Ori. It was far more likely that they would tumble into their new beds and spent the night in blissful unconsciousness. Faith wished that she could do the same, but she'd promised to take the second watch. Elifa hadn't looked too happy about her assignment, but she hadn't complained, slinking out of the back door without a backwards look.

Jem had fallen asleep in his stew, and although it had been Kay who'd gently plucked his head from the bowl and wiped his face, laying it tenderly back down on the table, it was Mallie who carried him up to bed. Faith waited in the hallway to make sure she left his room for her own and then opened the door Kay had pointed out to her and tumbled into the bed inside without so much as a glance around her room. She was asleep within seconds.

**l**

For the very first time since it had opened, Il Fiore Bianco was closed for the night. Despite this, it resembled a bustling hive full of uniformed officials, with a cordon of police tape stretched around the premises complete with several officers, turning back those who hadn't received their message telling them that their booking had been abruptly cancelled and the curious alike. The officers on the driveway had already sent more than their fair share of people away and the officer in charge sighed wearily as he approached a black Ford Mustang that had swung onto the approach.

The driver flashed his identification without speaking and the officer took a moment to study it carefully before waving him through. Burning with curiosity, like the rest of his men, he watched the black Mustang drive the short distance to the restaurant before he made his way back to his post. What were the Air Force up to now?

Inside, Il Fiore Bianco's refined atmosphere had been reduced to one of intense focus. Forensic experts, many from the SGC itself, were everywhere while the nervous and unnerved staff had been gathered in one corner of the room, and were in the process of being interviewed by police officers with a higher security clearance than those outside. In the centre of it all stood Daniel Jackson, his arms hugged around his body and the expression on his face grim as he listened to the Deputy Chief speak. Across the room, Cam took a moment to assess the situation before he crossed the room to Daniel. Not good.

"Jackson," he said as he approached and Daniel swung around, his relief written across his face.

"Mitchell," he greeted, his smile falling slightly as his eyes flickered to the empty space behind Cam. Cam pretended not to notice. "Any news?"

Cam shook his head, glancing at the Deputy Chief, who was quickly fading into the woodwork. "I was going to ask you the same thing," he said, steering Daniel over to a relatively quiet section of the room so that they could have some privacy.

"Something knocked out all the security cameras in the building, so we don't have an ID yet," Daniel informed him. "But something this big, in a place this crowded...? It's got to be the Trust."

"The Odyssey's located her transmission signal," Cam said carefully.

"Great!" said Daniel, his eyes brightening and his shoulders straightening. "Get her out of there."

"It's not that simple," Cam told him. "It looks like she's on Main Street, and there are civilians there. We can't just pull her out. Sam's leading a team to intercept."

"Let's go," said Daniel. "We can be there in ten minutes."

"By the time we get there it'll be over," Cam pointed out reasonably. "We're better off finding out as much as we can here," he caught sight of a purple-faced man amongst the crowd of staff, "Before the manager has a heart attack."

Daniel's eyes narrowed, "There's something you're not telling me. Isn't there?"

Cam's eyes dropped before Daniel's level stare. He sighed, reluctant to admit, "She's not moving."

**l**

Oz refused to let anyone in the Watcher's flat with him, and it wasn't hard to see that the slayer contingent Robin Wood had foisted on SG-13 weren't happy about it. Apart from the two that kept a careful watch on either end of the hallway, they kept their eyes trained on the door, stiffening whenever Oz padded into view, his nose usually glued to the carpet.

It had taken the slayers completely by surprise when he disappeared out of sight and re-emerged in his werewolf form and Jon had enjoyed the consternation on their faces. One of the younger ones, Fiona he thought her name was, had lunged for him, but the Doc had effortlessly yanked her back into line with the others. They hadn't taken that well either, and the Doc was the oblivious recipient of dark glares whenever the Cleveland slayers could tear their eyes away from Oz.

Finally he reappeared him human form, calm and implacable as ever as he walked towards them rubbing his nose. Wood's lead slayer, Kelsey, straightened purposefully as he approached them, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as they waited for his verdict.

"Three human men," Oz said succinctly. "Not local."

"Mercs?" Jon asked as Kelsey hit a speed-dial number on her cell and waited to be connected.

"Maybe," Oz conceded with a shrug. "Definitely professionals. They drugged him."

The Cleveland slayers weren't the only ones to take Oz's statement badly; the Doc bristled angrily too. Jon shot her a warning glance and she settled down a little, unlike the other slayers, who remained on edge.

"The were says we're looking for three humans," Kelsey reported into her phone. "Out-of-towners, possibly mercenaries. They drugged Cyril," her voice wavered on her last sentence and she suddenly looked very young as her attitude dropped away.

"Uh-huh," she said in reply to the other person, and Jon wished she'd put the call on loudspeaker. Everyone else could probably hear the conversation; it wasn't fair to leave him out of it. "Okay. See you soon."

Ending the call, Kelsey had the courtesy to inform them, "Robin wants us back at the house."

"Andrew found something?" Jon asked laconically as the Cleveland slayer turned on her heel.

"Nope," she threw back over her shoulder as she stalked back the way they'd come, the other Cleveland slayers falling in behind her.

"Well, this is more fun than watching Daniel's face when he realises Looney Tunes thinks it's a date," Jon commented sarcastically, trailing after them.

"Oh, shut up," snapped the Doc.

"That's 'shut up, _Captain_' Doc."

"Bite me."

"Tempting..."

**l**

Walking in front of four burly marines, all thankfully wearing civvies, Sam tried her best to be look unobtrusive as they hurried towards the co-ordinates the Odyssey had sent them. At the back of her mind, several grisly explanations for Vala's lack of movement were playing on a fast-track loop. Best case scenario, Vala had gotten away and was hiding, waiting for them to find her. Worst case...? Well, the SGC would be holding a funeral service this week and she'd have to explain to Daniel why she hadn't gotten there quick enough.

Sam shook off her morbid thoughts, glancing down at the small GPS receiver she held in her hand. They were close. Very close. She slowed down and, behind her, SG-2 (who'd been out on a team drinking session when they'd been called by General Landry) slowed too. They spread out across the sidewalk, eyes scanning every nook and alleyway for the missing alien.

The GPS receiver beeped, signalling that they'd reached their destination, and Sam stopped, looking around. There was no sign of Vala and while SG-2 (thankfully none the worse for all the alcohol they'd consumed – a fraction of their usual amount) assessed the pedestrians passing by, Sam scoured the area for any sign of her.

Finally, she found what she was looking for. A small but powerful locator beacon, normally found implanted in Vala's upper left arm. Sam had one just like it in her arm. Squinting at it, Sam could just about make out a small piece of flesh still attached to the bloody device, and she firmly repressed a squeamish shudder. Whoever had cut it out had been in a hurry.

Reaching into her coat pocket, she pulled out a small plastic bag and a pair of tweezers, carefully picking up the transmitter and depositing it in the bag before she stood. Grabbing her cell phone, she called General Landry to break the news.

**l**

"Oh, that is just wrong!"

"What?" Jool sighed patiently, looking back just in time to see Jon use the exposed concrete of the sewer system to scrape something off his boot. She very quickly decided that she didn't want to know.

"Remind me again why we decided to take the scenic route," he groused, but the smile he sent her suggested that he didn't really mind, with the barest hint of 'I've been in worse places'.

"Because we're _patrolling_," one of the Cleveland slayers said in a tone that clearly implied a 'duh!' on the end of her sentence. "What kind of watcher _are _you?"

"The non-watching kind," Jon replied promptly. "Not a watcher," he elaborated as the Cleveland slayer stared blankly at him.

She turned her back on him without another word.

"Well that was rude," Jon commented, unoffended, as the slayer hurried to catch up with the rest of her team. SG-13 was trailing at the back of the group. "What did we do to piss these guys off?"

"Hey!" one of the native slayers hissed back down the tunnel at them. "Muzzle the mortal."

Jool sighed again for perhaps the umpteenth time since they'd left Colorado, pushing the tension out of her body. "It's not you," she said, putting on a burst of speed to catch up with the other slayers. "It's me."

"Huh?" asked Jon, confused, but she refused to answer. He turned to Oz for an explanation, "Well, that was a cliché."

"She's not wrong," Oz informed him helpfully, keeping his voice low and his eyes on where he was walking. "Only found out after all the slayers got activated that they're territorial." Oz shrugged, "Who knew? Plus they've got a pack-like hierarchy thing going for them too and Jool's a complete unknown. They don't know where she belongs."

"Great," Jon said dryly. "So how do we get 'em all to play nice? Braid each other's hair... that kind of thing."

"Don't worry," Oz told him calmly. "They'll fight it out sooner or later."

"Good," said Jon, relieved. "Wait, what?"

An urgent hiss came from the slayers ahead of the men, "Shh!"

Both seasoned fighters, Jon and Oz didn't need telling twice. They spread out, each hefting the weapon he carried as they headed towards the slayers, moving silently through the sewer. In front of them the slayers were preternaturally still as they all waited, and for the first time, Jon noticed a similarity between the Doc and the other slayers. They'd all instinctively dropped into the same predatory stance. For the first time they were acting as a unit, arranged in a rough circle with their backs to each other. It was almost scary how quickly slayers could go from bitching teenagers to lethal predators. It would be outright terrifying if he didn't know that he wasn't their prey. He felt a new-found respect for Robin Wood, survival in a house full of hormonal slayers seemed risky at best. Jon was just glad that his slayer was an adult. Wait... Jon frowned. That came out wrong.

Fortunately the vampires lurking out of sight picked that exact moment to finally screw up their courage and attack. Startled out of his reverie, Jon found himself in the middle of a brawl to the death armed only with a cross, a super-soaker filled with a limited amount of holy water and a couple of pointy sticks in the breast pocket of his coat. He'd balked at the water-gun when it had first been handed to him, back at Slayer HQ, but he had to admit that it was more useful than he'd given it credit for. Mindful of his ammo, he made every shot count, resorting to his cross only when he was grabbed from behind, pressing it into the vampire's muscley forearm. The vampire howled, letting go of Jon and almost simultaneously backhanding him with the other hand.

Jon flew across the room. It gave him time to observe how the fight was going, in a detached sort of way. Something in his back pocket crunched as he landed but he barely registered it. Rolling to his feet, he pulled a stake from his pocket and plunged it into a vampire's back.

"Thanks," smiled Kelsey before she whirled to face another foe.

They were grossly outnumbered. Yet, somehow, it didn't matter. Alone, the slayers were each capable of holding their own against several vampires at once, but together they tore through the vampires like a Kull Warrior through a human planet. In fact, Jon was pleased to notice, he wasn't the only one who'd been side-lined. Oz was making his way around the fringes of the fight towards him. Reaching him, the short were-wolf handed Jon the crossbow he carried.

"Thanks," Jon grinned. He liked the crossbow.

"Told you they'd fight it out," Oz said, coming close to a smile as he handed Jon another quarrel.

All too soon, the fight was over and the vampires reduced to dust, slowly sifting through the air to settle on the surface of the sewage running sluggishly underfoot. Jon made a mental note to buy new boots tomorrow. Or was it today?

"Weird," commented Kelsey, peering down the passageway the vampires had entered from.

"What?" asked Jon before he could stop himself from revealing his ignorance.

"They had to know we'd beat them," Kelsey mused. "Vamps don't normally make a habit of seeking us out."

"I got something!" called out one of the Cleveland slayers. Jon had completely forgotten her name.

"Show me," demanded Kelsey, pushing her way past the slayers that had immediately clustered around the other girl. But the Doc was already there, and had just been handed whatever it was.

Unaware that Kelsey was fuming across from her, Jool stared at the small object she held in her hand, gut-wrenching in its familiarity. Looking up, her gaze clashed with Kelsey's for a moment before the lingering hostility in the other slayer's eyes faded away, replaced by concern.

"What is it?" she asked.

Jool held it out so that she could see for herself, "Sir Cyril's ring."

**l**

Vala fought her way back to consciousness, barely even aware of why she was struggling. It wasn't until she opened her eyes that she discovered that her struggles hadn't been entirely **spiritual**; she was cuffed to a hospital bed with leather restraints. Normally Vala wasn't adverse to a little light bondage, and if it involved Daniel Jackson she was more than in favour of it, but in this case she rather thought she was against. It wasn't anything personal; it was just that she didn't recognise any of the three people in the room... or the room for that matter. Not to mention the large band-aid and sharp pain in her upper arm. Right where her location transmitter was supposed to be. In fact, now she thought about it, her last memory was of a man stabbing her in the neck with a needle and dragging her out to his waiting car.

Vala was pretty certain that this wasn't how first dates usually went.

"I apologise for that," the blonde woman said calmly, stepping towards Vala. She didn't look sorry, but in her form-fitting grey suit she did look like she was in charge. "The surgery was performed in a moving car. They were more concerned about removing the subcutaneous transmitter than about being gentle about it."

Vala frowned a little as she looked around the room, getting her bearings and working out possible escape routes for when her head was a little less groggy. It was some sort of lab, she was almost certain of it. Not a good sign. And the two men hovering at the back of the room were clearly henchmen.

Vala let some of her confusion show as she asked the woman, "Do I know you?"

"You did," she relied, her voice still eerily calm. "A long time ago."

For a brief second, her eyes glowed gold and Vala's heart sank. A Goa'uld. And she'd thought the evening couldn't get any worse.

"Qetesh, the Goa'uld that once occupied your body, was a rival of mine," the Goa'uld coolly informed her. "She was a very intelligent adversary, which is why I eventually decided to partner with her. In retrospect, it's also the reason I should have been more careful about trusting her," she added introspectively, with a hint of bitterness.

It was the most emotion Vala had seen her show but she didn't let it distract her. She'd always known that one day her past would come back to haunt her. It always did. This wasn't even the first time that someone had tried to take a grudge against Qetesh out on her. She had a speech prepared for just such occasions. Granted, she'd never said it whilst at the other person's mercy but there was a first time for everything.

"As the host to her Goa'uld," began Vala. "I was an unwilling participant in many of Qetesh's thoughtless actions, so if this is," she could stop the small nervous laugh that escaped her, "A revenge thing, your anger is, well, misplaced."

"This isn't a revenge thing," the Goa'uld replied coldly.

"Oh," said Vala, feeling the faint hope that she might be able to talk her way out of this one fade away, curl up in a corner, and die a quiet death.

The Goa'uld nodded to one of her flunkies and he picked something up from the workbench in front of him. Vala's misgivings grew as he approached her.

"This is a search for answers," the Goa'uld informed her as the scientist or whatever he was reached Vala's side. "My position in the Trust has afforded me considerable resources."

Her minion reached towards Vala, who leaned as far away as she could. Unfortunately it wasn't far enough. He pressed a small bluely metallic circular device to Vala's forehead and she flinched as sharp needles hooked into her flesh, holding the device in place as the man stepped away.

"Ow," protested Vala. Suddenly pain spike again, stabbing deep into her forehead, "_Ow_!"

"Ever since I heard that you joined Stargate Command, I've been watching and waiting for an opportunity..." the Goa'uld continued as though nothing had happened, even as her underling scurried back to his station. "Which finally presented itself tonight."

"What exactly do you want from me?" Vala asked, summoning all of her remaining bravado to help see her through.

"The code," the Goa'uld said cryptically. "To an Ancient tablet that I helped Qetesh located long ago," she elaborated, much to Vala's relief. "A treasure map of sorts. She was supposed to share it with me, but instead decided to keep it for herself. From what I understand, she was never able to decipher it. I'd like that opportunity."

"To be honest, "Vala shrugged, "It doesn't ring a bell."

"That's because you suppressed many of the details from your time as Qetesh," the Goa'uld informed Vala superciliously, practically sneering as she looked down her nose at her. "The full genetic memory of the Goa'uld would drive your inferior human mind insane. Luckily, we have this device to help us find what we're looking for," the Goa'uld smiled, but there was no warmth behind it.

Vala glanced around the room, and as she'd hoped, it wasn't hard to spot the thing that didn't belong. The two techs were standing in front of a control board that was definitely not of Earthly origin. Unfortunately it wasn't a device she recognised. As she watched, the minion's underling fiddled with the controls.

"This'll take a while," he said.

"I'll leave you to it then," the Goa'uld said, satisfaction oozing out of every pore. She smiled at Vala again as she left.

Somehow, Vala wasn't reassured.

**l**

It felt like only seconds since she'd shut her eyes, but someone was roughly shaking her awake. Faith resisted the urge to punch them senseless. It was probably Elle. The newbie hadn't had time to learn that sleeping Faiths were best woken from a distance.

"I'm up," she grunted, forcing her eyes open as she swung her feet to the floor.

"Good," Elle said. "I'm going to bed."

"See you in the morning," Faith told her, forcing her legs to stand up and take her weight. Just about every muscle beneath her hip and a couple of those above complained about it, some more stridently than others. Faith ignored them, doing a couple of basic leg stretches to get the blood flowing to her abused muscles.

"Don't forget my father," Elle reminded her on the way out of the door and Faith frowned. It wasn't just the desire to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her head that was confusing her now.

"What about him?" she asked, and yawned.

"Val says we need to keep a close eye on him," Elifa told her with a frown. Faith had been there when the other slayer had said it. "He's sleeping at the moment."

"So, what? You've been hanging in his room?" said Faith, and the tiredness she felt made it come out more accusatory than she'd intended.

"Not all of the time," Elifa defended herself. "I walked around the town several times. And I went to the Portal of the Gods."

"We call it the Stargate," Faith said, striving for a more friendly tone. "Sometimes Kay calls it a Chappa'ai, but we're trying to cure her of that."

Elifa stared at her, wondering if she'd ever understand all that came out of her mouth. "Goodnight," she said, her tone reserved.

"Night," Faith told her with a smile. "Thanks for taking first watch. Good job."

Even in the moonlight, it was easy to see Elle's glow of pleasure at Faith's praise. For a moment, Faith had a horrible suspicion that Elle would turn out to be another hugger, like Mallie, but the moment passed to her eternal relief and Elle left Faith to get ready in her own time.

The dark slayer patted her clothes almost absently, checking that the weapons she hadn't bothered to remove when she crashed into bed hadn't slipped out of position and adjusting the few that had. She really needed to remember to at least take her weapons off before she went to sleep, Faith thought absently. Elle coulda easily wound up with a knife at her throat when she'd woken her up. She grabbed her sword before she left the room, buckling the scabbard around her waist as she pushed open the door to Val's room.

"Hey... Val," she whispered, gently shaking the sleeping girl. "Wake up."

"Don't want to," Val mumbled into her pillow.

"C'mon Val," Faith said with a grin. "Time to get up."

"Five more minutes, mother. Please..."

"Wake up Val," Faith insisted softly.

Grumbling in the back of her throat, Val rolled over, screwing open one eye to glare up at Faith, "What?" As she woke up, memory returned and both eyes opened fully, "Is it Skardhe?"

"Sleeping like a babe," Faith assured her. "Apparently."

"Good," Val said with a contented smile, her eyelids slowly descending...

"Oh, no, you don't," Faith told her and Val reluctantly opened her eyes again.

"_What_?" she asked plaintively.

"You gotta help me move your bed into Skardhe's room," said Faith and Val sat up, almost fully awake now.

"What? Why?"

"You said we need to keep an eye on him overnight," Faith reminded her. "Congratulations, you got the job."

"Why me?" whined Val, although in her defence, she did it while she was dragging herself out of bed.

"You're the healer," Faith pointed out reasonably.

"This is so not fair," Val told her. "I am not that good a healer."

"Best one we got," Faith said supportively.

"Not if we send for my mother," said Val, eager to press her cause as she gathered up her bedclothes and stuffed two pillows under one arm. "You promised you would do so when we were in a safe place. Leave the bedframe, just bring the mattress. I will sleep on the floor."

"First of all, we don't even know if we can get back here once we move on," Faith bottom-lined it for her, grabbing the mattress and following her out of the room. "Probably better to find that out first before your family moves here. Second, this is the Cimmerian's home now. You're gonna have to ask them if it's okay."

"They will say yes," Val said confidently. "Their only healer is an aged midwife."

"Don't diss Ursula," Faith said seriously but quietly as they entered Skardhe's room. "She's hardcore."

Val blinked at her, "I did not understand a word of that."

Faith grinned smugly, "I know."

**l**

General Landry met Daniel as he stepped off the elevator. Despite the late hour the General's uniform was crisp and immaculate, highlighting Daniel's rumpled appearance. The hallway around them was busier than was normal; a sign of how many people had been called into to help find Vala. Word was spreading amongst the off-duty personnel and several had made the commute back to the mountain to volunteer in the search. Vala was more popular than she realised, and Daniel was the recipient of several sympathetic glances.

"Anything?" he asked the General, already knowing the answer from the look on his face.

"I'm sorry," Hank shook his head sadly. "Colonel Carter is working with the Odyssey. They're trying to realign the sensors to search for the naquada left in Miss Mal Doran's bloodstream from her time as a Goa'uld host, but it's unlikely they'll be able to detect such a minute amount."

"Mitchell's with the Deputy Chief," Daniel informed him. "He'll let us know if anything comes up."

"I know," Hank said. "We've got the local authorities searching the area and conducting interviews with every possible witness," he sighed in frustration. "So far they've come up empty."

"General, there's no question the Trust is behind her disappearance," Daniel said feverishly. "I mean, they're the only ones with the resources capable of pulling something like this off."

"Agreed," said Landry. "I've already put a call through to Agent Barratt. He's got his people working on it."

"What about SG-13?" Daniel asked, voicing the question that had been puzzling the small corner of his mind that wasn't currently obsessed with Vala's disappearance. "We could have used their tracking skills earlier. It's not like them to miss something like this." He left unspoken the thought that they were supposed to be Vala's friends, but General Landry's sharp eyes caught the expression voluble on his face.

"You didn't hear?" the General asked, the steel underlying the pleasant tone of his voice informing Daniel that he'd almost committed a faux pas.

"Hear what?" asked Daniel, blissfully unaware that SG-13 wasn't even in the state.

"Doctor Wilson's Godfather was kidnapped by demons yesterday," Hank informed him. "The Watchers Council requested Andrew's help. Given the circumstances, I could hardly refuse. They're in Cleveland."

"But they know what's happened?" Daniel checked.

"Mmm..." Hank prevaricated for a moment before admitting, "We're still trying to get hold of them." Daniel frowned and Hank elaborated, "As far as we can tell, they're fine. They're just not answering their phones at the moment."

Actually, Doctor Wilson and Daniel Osbourne weren't answering their cell phones. Andrew and Jon's numbers were going straight to voicemail. But Hank wasn't about to tell Daniel that at the moment. He already looked like he was under enough stress as it was.

"They'll call in as soon as they can," he assured Daniel.

He didn't look reassured.

"We'll find her," tried Hank.

Daniel sighed. He really hoped so.

Something Landry had said suddenly struck him, "Kidnapped by demons?"

"Apparently."

"Huh."

**l**

The village was louder than the night.

All her life Faith had taken the noises of the night for granted, even more so once she was called as a slayer. It had become merely background noise to a never-ending fight for her life. Oh, she had learned to pay attention to it, but only so that she could detect the creatures passing in the night, to distinguish between demon and dog. (Top tip: demons were usually smellier.) Now, for the first time ever, the only note the night held was the wind, still dancing through the undergrowth, and setting a loose shutter clattering against its casing.

It was freaking Faith out.

At least in the village she could hear people snoring in their beds, and the horses in their stables. Outside it, she was utterly alone, for the first time in her life. She could easily be the only person alive on the whole planet. The only creature still alive.

Her childhood had been spent in a succession of over-crowded tenement buildings, constantly surrounded by other people. Even when she'd gotten out, she'd still chosen to live in cities. Sunnydale was the closest she'd come to country living (if you didn't count a couple of flying visits to B's castle) and Sunnydale was so close to LA that it might as well have been a suburb.

Faith had loved the cities she'd lived in. Loved the comfort and anonymity living next to several million other people provided. In a city you could be no-one. Here, alone in the night, you could only be you.

She'd survived prison, and life at B's house in Sunnydale just before the battle with the First. Faith had always thought of herself as independent and self-reliant before. She was only just beginning to understand how conditioned she was to rely on the presence of other people before.

All things considered, it was a relief when it was time to wake Kay up and go back to bed.

**l**

Red hot pokers tore their way through Vala's brain as old thoughts, memories and emotions from her time as a prisoner inside her own body were dragged up against her will from the deepest recesses of her subconscious and played again in her mind's eye and on the screen in front of the two men in the room. She was only dimly aware that one of them was speaking, all of her energy going towards concentrating beyond the pain to fight the intrusion. She couldn't even remember why she had to fight it, she just knew that it was important.

Suddenly the pokers retreated, the images faded. Sight returned to her and Vala became aware that she was gasping for air. The man who'd attached the device that was causing it walked towards her, and Vala shrank back involuntarily.

"How're are you feeling?" he asked solicitously.

Oh, now he wanted to be friends...! Although, now that he'd brought it up, how _was _she feeling?

"A little dizzy," Vala verbalised as the results of her internal assessment slowly filtered back to her aching head. "A little tired. And very, _very _angry."

"Oh, that's because the flashbacks you're experiencing are dredging up some long-buried emotions that may be colouring your conscious mind," he informed her helpfully.

"I'm gonna kill both of you in the most painful way possible," Vala promised him.

"Things'll go a lot faster if you just relax," he said, his expression turning cold as he studied Vala's mulish face.

"Whenever you're ready," he said to the other man.

Vala barely had time to brace herself before the agony started again, arching her back up off the mattress as she grimaced, turning her scream into a groan.

She had to give the SGC time to find her before she used up her usefulness. Or went mad.

**l**

General Landry looked up at the knock on his office door, his eyes gritty from lack of sleep. If Caroline were here she'd be ordering him to bed, and there was so much to oversee at this precise moment that Hank was grateful that it was his daughter's night off.

"Come in," he invited. The door opened and Teal'c entered, closing it behind him. "Teal'c," Hank greeted, waving him to a seat even though he knew from long experience that Teal'c would continue to stand.

"General Landry," Teal'c returned the greeting before Hank had a chance to ask what he could do for the Jaffa. "I wish to visit Cleveland. Immediately."

"I see," said Hank, suddenly profoundly grateful that one of his responsibilities and worries was about to be taken care of for him. "I assume that you intend to visit SG-13."

"Indeed," admitted Teal'c. "I believe that they would be of great use at this time. They have strengths and skills that we do not."

"I agree," Hank told him. "You know that their employers have specifically requested their help?"

"I do," said Teal'c. "Which is why I go only to inform them that their friend has been captured."

"You think they'll come?" Hank asked, thinking of the choice Doctor Wilson would be forced to make.

"They would not be who they are if they did not," Teal'c said simply.

**l**

"If this is another dinosaur world, I'm going home," Buffy said firmly once the roiling purple and black clouded had dissipated, revealing a grassy meadow. "Tell me Dawn's nearby."

"Be fair," argued Willow, waiting to establish her connection to this new Earth before she attempted another spell. Trans-dimensional travel could really drain the batteries. "They weren't dinosaurs last time, they were alien lizards."

"They were dino-men," Buffy stood by her decree, just as she had for the entire of their time in the second reality they'd visited. "And what was with the ginger obsession?"

"They're addicted to it," Willow patiently explained for what felt like the millionth time.

Drawing energy up from the earth beneath her feet, from the air around her and the sun beating down on her skin, Willow invoked Aradia. The familiar spark of green energy appeared in front of her. It hovered there for a few seconds, raising their hopes, and then winked as it flashed into a different existence.

Buffy vented her fear and frustration by screaming, and hurling the scythe as hard as she could. It chopped through a sapling at the edge of the meadow before lodging in another, larger tree.

"Uh... Buffy?" said Willow.

Buffy followed her pointing finger to the parasaurolophus that had just wandered into the clearing.

Enraged, the slayer beat it to death with her bare hands.

**l**

Teal'c compared the address on the piece of paper he held with the address of the mansion in front of him. He was at the right house. The crosses welded to the metal gates dispelled any lingering doubts he might have had. Despite the late hour, lights still shone from the house's windows and Teal'c pushed the gate open, assured by the Odyssey's sensors that Captain O'Neil, Andrew Wells and Daniel Osbourne were all inside. Doctor Wilson was in a cemetery on the other side of the city with six other humans.

Unfortunately, no-one aboard the Odyssey had thought to speculate on what Jool's absence might mean. Teal'c had arrived in the middle of the late patrol, attended only by the oldest slayers attached to the school. The lights had been left burning to guide the teams home when they were done. On an ordinary night, everybody inside would be asleep by now, with the sole exception of the watcher whose job it was to wait for the late patrol to report back at the end of the night. This was no ordinary night.

The slayers inside had been keyed up by the kidnapping of one of their watchers, a fact that Teal's had failed to take into account. It didn't help that Cyril's ring had recently been found on a dusted vampire, giving rise to fears that Cyril might have been turned, or that Robin was locked away in the library with most of the faculty and Andrew Wells, who was trying to use the ring to locate Cyril and failing. Nor would Jon and Oz be able to help him. Both were fast sleep in bed.

Teal'c never heard the roaming band of thirteen-year-olds that took him down, but he heard the tranquiliser gun fire just before the dart buried itself in his neck. He struggled against the drug, but it was a dose calculated to bring down a Fyarl demon and he had no choice but to surrender to the darkness.

Out of the night, three girls appeared, gathering around his prone body.

"Definitely a demon," one of them said decisively, prodding him with her foot.

Another bent and rolled him over. "I don't know," she said. "He looks human..."

Teal'c's beanie had shifted when she moved him, and the first slayer to speak, eagle-eyed, spotted the gleam that it concealed.

"Oh, yeah?" she said, and bent down to pluck it from his head. "What's that then?"

Faced with the symbol of Teal'c former servitude and their own slayer senses, the other two were forced to concede that she was probably right. It wasn't until they had him halfway to the house that any of them thought to wonder what they should do with him.

"Robin's busy," reasoned the one who'd spoken the most. "It's probably not a good time to bug him with this."

"But what do we do with it?" the one who hadn't been certain Teal'c was a demon wanted to know. The third slayer kept quiet, as before.

"Chain him up in the basement?" suggested the mouthy one.

They did that, and ordered the quiet one to make sure he didn't escape before they could tell Robin. Then the other two went back to bed.

Alone in the basement with an unidentified demon with unknown powers, the quiet young slayer, whose name was Katie, trembled and felt certain that she would not fall asleep on the job. Eventually however, exhaustion and the excitement of the day contrived together to snatch her off to sleep when she wasn't expecting it.

Teal'c's alien physiology burned off the sedative at an impressive rate, and it wasn't long after Katie had begun to lightly snore that he began to stir. Sitting up, he took stock of his situation.

While his circumstances were not ideal he was, at least, within the building. The manacles around his wrists he barely gave a second thought, confident that he could easily break them if he so chose, but his watch he gave considerably more attention to. It was past five in the morning in this timezone, and if the child asleep on the steps opposite him, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her head resting on those knees, was any indication, the people in the rooms above him would be fast asleep. An attempt to locate SG-13 now could only result in panic before explanations could be made, and warriors of the highest calibre resided here. Did Master Bra'tac not say that the prudent warrior lives longest?

The best course of action clear to him, Teal'c cleared his mind, closed his eyes, regulated his breathing and sank into kel'no'rem.

Sometime later he opened them to discover that the young slayer had awoken and was now regarding him with wide grey eyes. She squeaked as his gaze fell on her.

"Do not fear," Teal'c hastened to reassure her. "I will not harm you."

"Oh," she said, blinking rapidly. "Did-did I wake you? I didn't mean to."

"I was not in fact asleep," Teal'c told her. "I was merely within a state of kel'no'reem, which can sustain me without sleep for several days if necessary."

"Really?"

"Indeed."

There was silence for several long moments as she digested this.

"Cool," she decided finally. Her eyes brightened, "Can-can you teach me?"

A faint smile appeared at the corners of Teal'c's mouth as he inclined his head respectfully, "It would be my honour."

**l**

The sun was shining brightly through her window when Faith woke up. She stretched luxuriously, revelling in the comfort of a soft bed and the vague feeling of having overslept. Outside, she could hear people in the street, children laughing. Someone, somewhere was singing. Faith couldn't quite make out the words, but the melody was haunting.

It wasn't long before her brain reminded her that she was sleeping in a dead person's bed and ruined the moment. Faith didn't linger after that unpleasant thought. Getting dressed presented an unexpected dilemma. On one hand, she did have clean clothes she could wear. On the other, she herself was so filthy that she didn't want to ruin a clean set of clothes. Reluctantly, she pulled on the grimy, sweat-encrusted clothes that she'd been wearing the day before. One good thing was that her new leather pants now fitted like a glove, with just the right amount of give just where she'd need it.

Faith made her way down to the kitchen, hoping for coffee. She got it, although Kay warned her that their supply was getting low. Faith immediately ordered strict rationing. Half a cup of coffee later, she added chocolate to the 'once in a blue moon and maybe not even then' list.

"What are we doing today?" she asked, draining the dregs of her coffee, ash and all. She was tempted to lick out the cup. "An' where is everyone?"

"Elifa and Valencia are with Skardhe," reported Kay. "Mallie, Nya, Liss, Jem and Hal are still asleep. As for what we're doing today," she continued, placing a plate of dry toast and scrambled eggs in front of Faith. Interestingly, there was also a lump of cheese on the plate. "I thought breakfast first, then I've got water heating for baths."

A bath? Faith moaned with pleasure at the thought.

"Then," Kay said ominously, fixing Faith with a serious stare, "You and I need to have a talk about food."

"Food?" Faith asked around a mouthful of egg.

"Food," confirmed Kay.

Faith shrugged, "Okay."

**l**

"Cam..."

"I'm not asleep!" Cam announced as he jerked himself awake.

He'd dropped off in his office, he realised. Looking at his watch, he'd been asleep for a couple of hours.

"If it makes you feel any better, Daniel's asleep in his office," Sam told him, her eyes showing her amusement. "And I caught some earlier."

"What's going on?" Cam asked, realising that she probably wouldn't have woken him if something hadn't happened. He rubbed his eyes, suppressing a yawn.

"We just got word from Agent Barrett," Sam informed him. "He's sent over a list of suspected Trust safehouses."

"I'll get Jackson," said Cam, pushing himself to his feet.

"Uh... before you do," Sam tactfully averted her eyes, tapping the side of her mouth.

Cam touched the spot she had indicated and discovered drool. Hurriedly, he wiped it off. "Thanks."

"Any time," Sam told him as they left Cam's office.

"Teal'c back yet?" asked Cam.

Sam shook her head, "No word from him or SG-13 yet."

"Crap."

"Indeed," agreed Sam.

**l**

Jon's jaw dropped when he caught sight of the Doc at breakfast. One green eye was swollen almost completely shut, surrounded by an ugly dark bruise, and three long scratches travelled the length of one cheekbone. Fighting his way across the crowded room, he plonked himself down across the table from her.

"What the hell happened to you last night?" he demanded.

"Last night? Nothing," the Doc said with a grin. "I got this in the gym this morning."

Jon stared at her for a long moment, assessing the damage. "I hope you won," he said eventually.

He hadn't thought it was possible, but her grin actually widened. "Hell, yeah," she told him.

"Hate to see the other guy," offered Jon.

"You won't," she said matter-of-factly. "She's at the hospital having her arm cast."

"You broke her arm?" Jon jaw hit the floor again.

"In two places," the Doc confirmed cheerfully. "I'd like to see her try and scratch someone's eyes out now."

Jon stared at her until she caught sight of Andrew and Oz entering the room and stood up to wave them over. Just when he thought he'd worked out where the slayer in her ended and the woman began, she threw him a curveball. Every time. She was giving the other two a play-by-play account of the fight when Robin Wood's voice rang out above the babble.

"Attention, please!"

Conversations died as the slayers gave their head watcher their full attention. Jon couldn't help but pity the small, scared teenager stood next to Robin. She looked miserable.

"Would anyone care to explain," Robin enquired casually. "_Why _there's a manacled demon giving meditation lessons in the basement?"

In the chaos that erupted it was surprising that one voice carried to everyone in the room as she defended her new-found friend, "He's not evil! And he was teaching me kel'no'reem, not meditation."

SG-13 exchanged meaning-laden looks.

"Crap," Jon summed up for all of them.

**l**

Thanks to the Odyssey's Asgard transporters, the SGC was able to pull together several strike teams and deposit them in various locations within an hour of receiving Agent Barratt's list. In Denver, SG-1 were putting together the final touches of their planned assault on their designated safehouse. Literally. Sam was just easing the detonator into the C4 when Landry's voice crackled out of their radios.

"Team One, what's your status?"

Sam flashed Cam a thumbs up and Cam replied in a hushed voice, "Team One is in position."

He glanced over his shoulder at the assault team waiting for the order to go as he grabbed a spot close to the door but safely out of range of the small explosion that was about to go off. As he waited for General Landry to give the go ahead, he prayed that Vala was inside. Or, at least, if not inside this one, then inside one of the other safehouses on the list.

"All five teams are in position," announced Landry. "You have a go."

Cam blew the door.

**l**

Engrossed in his study of Cyril Leighton's remains, Ba'al was tempted to ignore the servant hovering just in sight. He was in the middle of trying to retrieve the data inside the robot, having reasoned that it must be in there somewhere. On the other hand, the man wouldn't be standing there if it wasn't important.

"What is it?" he snapped, his eyes glowing his displeasure.

"F-forgive me," the man stammered. "T-there are two gentlemen here to see you. They s-said to say they're from Wolfram and Hart."

Wolfram and Hart? Ba'al frowned. He hadn't requested any legal services. Or any illegal ones, now he thought about it. So what did his lawyers want?

**l**

Vala was temporarily incapable of hearing the muffled explosion, but both of the men in the room with her could and did hear it, exchanging troubled looks.

"What was that?" asked Vala's tormentor. "Turn it down."

And so Vala came back to herself just in time to hear the gunfire start up. A light sprinkling of zat blasts gave it a homey sound, she decided, struggling desperately to free herself. Her Daniel had found her and she was so relieved she could almost cry... if only she weren't so damn mad!

"Cover the door," her tormentor ordered the other man, and he nodded, grabbing a handgun from a drawer in the desk.

Vala's tormentor moved to free her, and Vala stopped struggling immediately, with the full intention of hitting him as hard as she could once she was free and making a run for it. She was reasonably certain that, as the cause of all this fuss, no-one would be shooting at her.

The man covering the door was hit by a zat blast, crumpling unconscious to the floor and her torturer abandoned her for the alien device. Vala glared after him as she clawed at her restraints with her one free hand, making a mental note to give him a good kick between the legs as well if she had time.

A familiar face, one from SG-15, loomed in the doorway his zat held at the ready. Her kidnapper looked up in panic and the Sergeant shot him. The voltage travelled through his body, stunning him, and into the alien device he was touched. Sparks flew from the console and the device attached to Vala's temple surged with power. White-hot fire erupted in Vala's head and her eyes rolled back into her head as every thought, every feeling was consumed by the fire.


	30. Cogito Ergo Sum Part 3: Tabula Rasa

**Cogito Ergo Sum, Part 3: Tabula Rasa**

"Damn."

Cam stared around the deserted room. Catching sight of the looks of consternation on Sam and Jackson's faces at finding only a flatbed truck inside their assigned safehouse, he figured that they probably matched his own. After all, they'd chosen this location specifically because it was the most likely to hold Vala. And all it contained were cries of "Clear!" as the assault team they'd brought with them moved through the building, finding nothing.

"Maybe they'll have better luck at the other locations," he said hopefully.

Daniel's jaw set in a grim line.

**l**

Gunfire was the first sound she was aware of, mixed with a strange yet somehow familiar electronic sound. A hand on her ankle made her jump and she looked down at the unfamiliar man standing at the end of her bed.

"It's alright," he reassured her, making eye contact as he worked to free her feet from the straps confining them. "We're here to help."

Shots rang out in the confined space of the room and the man slumped over her legs, blood running from the bulletholes in his back. She muffled a scream, her eyes meeting those of another man, sprawled on the floor with a handgun in his hand, seconds before he passed out.

She shoved the limp body of the man who'd tried to help her off of the gurney, her hands reaching for the strap that still held one ankle captive. Free, she swung her legs over the side of the gurney, only for several wires stuck to her body to protest the movement. She ripped the electrodes from her chest and arms, and the strange purple wireless one from her temple, although she barely gave it a passing glance.

Truly free now, she hastened to the door, peering out at the gunfight that was raging in the large room beyond. She could see the sky and freedom beyond the wide open hangar doors, but something warned her not to rush toward it. Instead, shielding her head with her hands and arms, she ducked low, running for a closed door she could see on the other side of the room. Thankfully it wasn't locked, and she closed it behind her, hurrying down the dark hallway towards the daylight she could see spilling in through an intersection.

The other hallway led to a glass door, with shut doors leading off into rooms. She ignored them, focussing on her means of exit. The door was locked and so she reluctantly backed up and took a running start at it.

The glass door shattered under the twin forces of her weight and momentum, and she tumbled through the opening she'd made to the concrete grounds. Glass shards bit into her skin, but she pushed past the slight pain, scrambling to her feet as she desperately looked around. Two men, dressed similarly to the one who'd tried to help her glanced at her, and then quickly turned back to the small battle that was blazing in front of them.

She limped away as fast as she could, wanting nothing more than distance between her and the hellhole behind her. As the pain in her twisted ankle began to fade, a roaring _whoomph _behind her made her turn around as a wave of hot air slammed into her.

The building she'd just escaped was a burning inferno now. The two men who hadn't shot her when she'd burst through the glass door had been reduced to black and smouldering heaps on the ground.

Terrified, she fled.

**l**

It didn't take the slayers in Cleveland long to shake off their shock and decide that they wanted to see the meditating demon for themselves. There was a general stampede for the door and Jon caught the Doc's eye, telegraphing a message. She nodded and took off like a shot, effortlessly weaving her way through the crowd to grab Robin's arm and stop him from following his slayers in a vain attempt to turn them back.

"He's with us," she blurted as soon as she'd got his attention.

"What?" he asked, frowning as it clicked. "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent," Jool said earnestly.

"How can you tell?" Robin wanted to know, still uncertain.

"Kel'no'reem," Andrew said, nodding wisely as the rest of SG-13 caught up with them. "It's gotta be T–"

"Murray," Jon hurriedly cut over the top of him, deliberately treading on his foot. "He's like, the world expert on the stuff. Tall, dark and silent kinda guy."

"Any other identifying features?" Robin asked blandly, and Jon privately cursed. He'd seen Teal'c's forehead.

"Gold tattoo?" Jon returned, matching Robin's poker face. "Looks a little bit like a wave in a circle? Middle of the forehead."

"That's the demon," confirmed Robin. He sighed, weary pessimism written on his face as he asked Andrew, "Does Buffy know about this?"

"Would I be here if she didn't?" Oz posed the question.

"Or me!" Andrew added indignantly.

"You, maybe," Robin bluntly replied to Andrew. He considered Oz's question a little more seriously, "You, probably not."

"Hey!" protested Andrew.

"From what I hear, you're more Giles' buttmonkey than anyone else's," Robin said mildly and Jon sniggered. The glance Robin sent him was more than mildly curious and Jon quickly found other places to look as the group followed the excited babble of noise coming up from the basement.

Andrew flushed an angry red, his face turning sullen as he muttered to his shoes, "That was a long time ago."

"And what's your story?" Robin asked Jon, suddenly switching his focus. "Anything to do with the project Faith was overseeing when she disappeared?"

"I wouldn't call it "overseeing" as such..." Jon hedged, unsure just how much Faith's ex-boyfriend knew about the Stargate Program. Not enough to recognise Teal'c, that was for sure!

Robin sighed. "Then, apparently," he said, "I don't want to know." It was obvious, however, that he did.

Jon sympathised with him. He'd seen families torn apart by the secrecy demanded by his country; wives unable to cope with not knowing where their husband was, and when or if he would return; children estranged by vague excuses, missed birthdays, and simple absence. Robin, and the organisation he worked for, operated under an even darker veil of secrecy. Under the circumstances, and given what he'd seen of the Council so far, it wouldn't have been unusual for Faith to confide in her lover. Especially since she'd never signed a non-disclosure agreement. But she hadn't, and then she'd vanished. It had to be hard on the guy. It looked like it was.

"Is it just me," said Robin as they reached the open door to the basement, "Or is it too quiet down there?"

"It's not just you," Oz and the Doc replied at the same time.

The five rushed down the stairs into the large open plan basement. In the few seconds it took his brain to process what it was seeing, Jon admired the renovation work that had been carried out. It was almost a shame that its impact was totally eclipsed by the sight of Teal'c, his eyes closed and legs crossed, unconcerned by the thick manacles around the wrists of his large upturned hands, resting on his knees, as he led the Slayers of Cleveland in kel'no'reem.

**l **

"What exactly is this about?" Ba'al demanded as he strode into the room where his lawyers were waiting, his voice a harsh, inhuman sound and his eyes glowing from within. "I have important matters to attend to."

"At your creator's behest..." one of the two said, reminding the clone of his origins, as he stood up. The other remained in his chair. Ba'al wasn't entirely certain the behemoth would be able to stand without taking the chair with him. "We do understand."

Ba'al frowned, discomforted by the reference to the Original, and the veiled hint that the humans before him knew of his plans. "Who are you?" He didn't recognise either man. "Where is Ian Wheeler?"

"Our meeting does not concern Mr Wheeler," the lawyer told him. "Allow me to introduce ourselves. Morgan Crash," he indicated himself. "And this is my colleague, Buddy."

"Hiya!" Buddy said from his chair, waving at Ba'al with a beaming smile.

"Hello," Ba'al replied, unable to prevent himself from responding to the simpleton.

"We're from Wolfram and Hart's acquisitions and properties department," Crash continued smoothly with a friendly smile. "You have something of ours. We'd like it back."

**l**

As Robin, Andrew, Oz, Jool and Jon stood staring in dumbfounded silence at the unlikely tableau before them, Teal'c cracked open one eye to look at them. The faint air of satisfaction he had cloaked himself in was further enhanced by the slight, rueful smile that tugged at one corner of his mouth, and he nodded infinitesimally at the small group of adults still clustered on the stairs.

"Katherine Price will lead you now," he rumbled and a muffled squeak came as the slayer in question, the one who'd defended him against Robin earlier, stared wide-eyed and horrified at Teal'c.

Teal'c nodded at her, his belief in her abilities glowing like a warm fire in the depths of his brown eyes, and after a moment Katie slowly took up the chant, her voice wavering to begin with and then strengthening as she continued to repeat the ancient Jaffa words. Teal'c waited until he was certain she would not falter and then stood, flexing his muscles in a move carefully calculated to break his chains.

It didn't work. Metal screeched, but still held him. Teal'c frowned at his chains with a hint of worry in his eyes, and a ripple of cold amusement ran through the slayers kneeling before him. The atmosphere in the basement seemed to plunge several degrees as the girls tensed, many rising to their feet.

"That's enough," Robin's voice rang out. "Don't any of you have classes to get to?"

Slayers looked at one another in consternation, and then dashed for the door. Jon hurriedly leapt out of their way, feeling no desire to be trampled to death today. Or any other day for that matter. The other members of SG-13, mostly equipped with supernatural reflexes and all possessing first-hand knowledge of slayers en masse, had all managed to get clear before Robin had finished speaking. So had Robin.

Only one slayer remained in the basement. Little Katie Price stood in front of the demon she had befriended, scowling belligerently.

"I won't let you slay him!" she told them fiercely. "He's not evil."

"We know. We won't hurt him," Jool promised her, approaching Katie and Teal'c slowly with her hands held away from her body peaceably. "Slayer's honour."

The scowl faded reluctantly from Katie's face, leaving the young slayer staring suspiciously up at the elder.

"Murray's an old buddy of ours," Jon chipped in. "We go way back, don't we Murray?"

"We do indeed, O'Neil," Teal'c confirmed as Katie's nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Murray?" she questioned dubiously.

"I don't want to know," Robin decided. "C'mon Katie, let's give them some time to catch up."

Her head low, Katie dragged her feet as she crossed the room towards Robin.

"Uh, manacles...!" Jon reminded Robin as the teacher and his student began to ascend the staircase.

"I've got my key somewhere," said Jool, patting her pockets. "Ah!" Catching sight of Jon's face as she produced a silver key she shrugged, adding in explanation, "Standard slayer issue."

"She's not wrong," Oz added in support.

"So..." Jon said to Teal'c as Jool unlocked his manacles. The young Captain rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans, "Whatcha doin' here?"

"Vala Mal Doran has been kidnapped," Teal'c said bluntly, rubbing his wrists where the metal had chafed his skin.

"What?"

"When?"

"Who by?"

"Okay..." said Jon, ignoring his team's outburst of shock and dismay. "Still doesn't explain why you're here."

"When General Landry was unable to contact you, I volunteered to make the attempt," Teal'c informed him. "I believe you have several voicemail messages awaiting retrieval."

"Remind me not to carry my cell in my back pocket," Jon said, closing his eyes. He opened them to glare at his team, "What's your excuse?"

Oz shrugged, "Forgot to bring it."

"I haven't had any calls," the Doc protested, pulling her phone out of her pocket to brandish it at them. "Oh. It's out of battery. When did that happen?"

"Don't look at me," Andrew told them. "I always switch my phone off when I'm working my mojo."

"Don't call it that," ordered Jon, slightly disturbed.

"Why?" whined Andrew.

"What happened to Vala?" Jool demanded to know.

**l**

She was cold. The chill wind raised goosebumps of flesh on her exposed arms, and she rubbed them to warm herself. The people passing by were all wearing coats, and their curious glances felt like the sting of a lash when they landed on her. She avoided their eyes, hunching her shoulders as she tried to blend in.

She kept walking, hoping that at some point she would find herself in familiar surroundings, see someone she knew, a face she recognised. Even the people posing in posters were strange to her.

It was a fragrant aroma that stopped her, and her protesting stomach. Tracing it to its source, she watched two strangers open the door of a diner and walk inside. They were greeted by a smiling woman in blue, who led them to a table.

Irresistibly, her feet led her toward the diner.

**l**

Kay had a list. An actual list.

Faith wasn't exactly sure when the oldest slayer had found time to make it; she was constantly on the go, cooking, cleaning and organising baths as people woke up... and oh, how Faith missed indoor plumbing! Bath just weren't as much fun when you had to fill them up by hand and empty them the same way.

Nevertheless, somehow Kay had found the time to make the list and present it to Faith. Now Faith sat at the kitchen table, frowning over its contents while Mallie and Kay hauled buckets of water for Mallie's bath. Surely they couldn't eat nine chickens, four ewes, three pigs and a cow in one week? What the hell was a ewe anyway?

Worse, Kay's list only covered the slayers, Jem, Hal and Skardhe's food requirements. It didn't even begin to touch what the Cimmerians would need. And there was a whole separate subsection for dairy products.

She needed another cup of coffee to deal with this. And a cigarette. Instead, Faith grabbed one of the trail bars they'd found with the rest of the military-issued rations on the deserted planet back before they'd found Nya and sat back down, eking out every last crumb.

Sure, slayers had ferocious appetites, she already knew that. But she hadn't realised just what that meant when you got lots of 'em together. Robin, G-Man and the rest of the Scoobies had dealt with the logistics of the new Watchers Council, her job had been to go where they told her to go and hit what she was told to hit. She'd been good at it too, before the Powers tapped her and sent her out here. Free will, her ass!

Bottom line was, they'd starve if they stayed here, and so would the Cimmerians. They were already killing the horses they'd brought with them for meat; what would happen when they ran out of horses? Faith hadn't seen any sign that this world was technologically advanced enough to have tractors and shit like that either, so what were they going to do about farming? She didn't even know what time of the year it was at the moment. It was a warm morning, and outside the sun was shining and the trees were green, but was it spring or summer? How long did the Cimmerians have before winter hit, and how bad was it likely to be?

She'd thought she was helping them by bringing them here, but if all it bought them was a few extra months before they died of starvation, what good had she done? She had to fix it. But how?

Would the Cimmerians go for another move? What about the world where they'd found the rations and the rest of the SGC stuff at the bottom of the ocean? It had had plenty of wild animals... Thinking about it though, Faith remembered that the weather had been worsening during their stay, and the castle that had been their shelter had been disintegrating around them.

If only there was a local Wal-Mart. Faith laughed a little bitterly at the thought. Forget Wal-Mart, they needed a slaughterhouse! They probably had one, she suddenly realised. It was meat they didn't have. "And where the fuck am I supposed to find a shitload of farm animals?" Faith asked herself, unconsciously speaking aloud.

Mallie, on her way through the kitchen to the well outside for a bucket of cold water, hesitated. "What about Jerbanna?" she suggested.

Faith frowned, struggling to place the name. Where had she heard it before? She could tell it was gonna bug her, just like Valhalla was.

"There are other trade planets than Jerbanna," said Kay. "Bigger ones."

The penny dropped. "Isn't Jerbanna the planet your Aunt What's-Her-Face kidnapped us from?" Faith asked in horror.

"Yes..." Mallie reluctantly admitted.

"What happened?" Kay asked curiously, a half-smile on her face as she glanced between the two.

"Nothin' we're ever gonna speak of," Faith said. "Right, Mallie?"

"Right," Mallie agreed, nodding firmly.

"An' we're not going back there either," Faith decreed. She looked thoughtful, "It's not a bad idea though. How much would we need to feed the others as well?"

She asked Kay the question, but it was Mallie who replied with a shrug, "It depends on how many of them there are." The blonde Terlunan frowned, her nose crinkling, "How many of them _are _there anyway?"

Faith didn't know. She glanced at Kay, who looked helplessly back at her, and groaned. She contemplated banging her head against the table.

"Brock'll know," Kay calmly pointed out.

"I'll go find him," Faith said, getting to her feet. There was no point in hanging around. Kay had made it clear the situation was urgent.

"Do you want me to come with you?" offered Mallie.

"Have your bath," Faith told her. "I'll be back soon."

**l**

The debriefing between General Landry and the three members of SG-1 that weren't currently missing was winding to a close when the intercom on the briefing room table buzzed insistently. Breaking off mid-sentence, Hank Landry scowled at the invention, irritated by the interruption. Apologising to the team in front of him, he jabbed the intercom with one finger.

"What?" he barked, making his annoyance plain.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir," Walter's voice told him. "I have Teal'c and SG-13 on the line for you."

Hank's shoulders sank with relief. "Put them through," he ordered, his tone no longer antagonistic.

"Hello?" Jon O'Neil's voice was the next to float through the intercom. "Anyone there?"

"Captain," Hank greeted him. "I'm with Colonels Mitchell and Carter, and Doctor Jackson at the moment. You're on loudspeaker. I understand Teal'c is with you?"

"I am indeed," Teal'c confirmed.

"Where are you?" asked Hank.

"Robin Wood's office," Jon told him. "Y'know, we really should consider reading him into the program. He's the head of the North American branch of the Council and Faith's ex for crying out loud."

"Ex?" the world slipped out before Cam could stop it. "I thought..." He shut up.

"I'll take it under consideration," said Hank, dismissing the topic of conversation before Mitchell could embarrass himself further. "How soon can you get here?"

"As soon as the Odyssey can get us there," Jon told him. "Can we leave Andrew behind?"

"Captain..." Hank warned him, not in the mood for the Captains erratic sense of humour.

"I'm serious," Jon protested. "He's needed here. Leighton's still MIA."

"But we need him too," Daniel objected.

"Apparently he can 'scry' for her from here," Jon told them, and they could almost see him making air quotations over the word scry despite the distance between the two groups. "And let us know what he finds. That's if he remembers to keep his phone switched on!"

"I will!" promised Andrew, his voice high. "Watcher's Honour."

"Have you made any progress yet?" asked Jool, the concern in her voice evidence of the strength of her attachment to the missing alien.

"Our contacts with the NID faxed over a list of possible Trust safehouses," Cam told them.

"Great," said Jon. "When do we go in?"

"We already have," Daniel told him bitterly.

"Ah," Jon got it. "No joy?"

"Four out of the five safehouses we hit were empty," Sam told him. "Only one, it turned out, was still in play, and that was SG-15's. We lost them and three members of the local team. One Trust operative survived the explosion with minor injuries. He confirmed that the place was rigged to blow in the event it was stormed. He also confirmed that Vala was being held at that location."

"Could they have moved her before the raid?" asked Jool.

"Unlikely," said Sam with a grimace. "They wouldn't have had the time. Besides, the guy we caught claims he saw Vala making a run for it."

"She coulda got out on her own," Oz pointed out.

"Then why hasn't she got in contact yet?" Hank asked.

No-one answered him.

Daniel sighed heavily.

"Okay! New plan!" Jon announced.

"What is it?" Hank asked warily, all-too-familiar with that particular tone.

"We'll beam to where-ever-she-was and check it out," Jon told him. "Worst case, we'll rent a truck and drive Oz round 'til he smells Vala."

In Cleveland, Oz sent Jon an unusually expressive glare. "What?" asked Jon, confused.

"That... could work," realised Hank. "You have a go."

"What about Andrew?" Jon asked hopefully.

"Fine," Hank sighed. "You can leave him behind."

**l**

Ba'al stared at the two humans before him with dislike, and a grudging respect. In the face of his best arguments and threats, Ian Crash and his associate had remained implacable. They refused to leave without the cyborg remains currently residing in Ba'al's laboratory. As Buddy had put it, "Failure ain't 'xactly a option for us." Crash had seemed genuinely surprised that his partner had the word in his vocabulary. The square-jawed lawyer had produced reams of paper to prove that the cyborg was the legal property of Ba'al's lawfirm. Not one piece mentioned why Wolfram and Hart had found it necessary to insert a robotic spy into what was essentially a charitable, if somewhat elusive, organisation.

Ba'al had already drawn his own conclusions about the Watchers Council. Wolfram and Hart's interest in the Council only confirmed his suspicions. Now, faced with the loss of the most intriguing technological break-though he'd discovered since he'd been cloned, he was determined to claw something of use out of the encounter.

"And what," asked Ba'al, rising to his feet. "Is to prevent me from going straight to the Watchers Council and informing them of Cyril Leighton's true identity?"

Buddy frowned in puzzlement, "You mean, other than the fact that they'd kill you before you got the chance?" the giant asked naively.

"A risk I am willing to take," Ba'al informed him haughtily, allowing his eyes to flash as he stared down his nose at Buddy.

Buddy glanced uncertainly over at the brains of the duo, and Crash held his gaze for a few moments before turning to Ba'al.

"What do you want?" the lawyer bluntly asked.

Ba'al smiled, "Information..."

**l**

Brock was inspecting the approach to the village from the Stargate with four other men when Faith finally tracked him down. Together, the men were discussing the best way to defend the village now that they could no longer rely on Thor's Hammer to protect them from invasion. Not that it had been much use to them against the Ori.

Rather than interrupt, Faith hovered a little distance from the group, listening to them talk about look-outs, traps and beacon fires. In the long-term, Brock wanted a stand of fast-growing trees planted between the 'Gate and the village, to try to disguise it.

Faith could see what he meant. The village was only just visible from the Stargate, almost hidden between the curving slopes of the Stargate valley as they nearly met at the far end. If the hills had met, the village would have been completely hidden. Apart from the smoke rising from its chimneys...

Of course, long-term wouldn't matter if they starved to death, but Faith couldn't help but wonder if a man-made embankment wouldn't work just as well. She suggested it, and then had to explain the concept. It was enough to make her wish she'd paid more attention to the Xan-man when he'd been complaining about the amount of work it took to slayer-proof a building, but they seemed enthusiastic about the idea.

They were arguing about the best materials to use when Faith spotted Jem running towards them, his arms and legs flailing. She broke away from the others, jogging to meet him. Brock and the other men drifted after her.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked, the look on the re-headed teen's face tipping her off.

"Skar..." Jem gasped, his face almost as red as his hair. "Dhe... He's worse... Val says... she needs her mum."

"Shit," Faith swore. It looked like they were gonna test whether or not the Powers would let them come back here sooner than she'd wanted to. "Got time to walk with?" she asked Brock, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Of course," he agreed readily.

"You need a hand?" offered Faith, peering at Jem with concern.

He waved her off, attempting to preserve his masculine dignity in front of the other men, so Faith set off, keeping her speed at a gentle stroll to give him time to catch his breath. As Brock fell in step beside them, the other men picked up their argument about merits of stone, as opposed to wood, where they had left off.

"What is it you wished to speak of?" Brock asked Faith as soon as they were out of human earshot.

"How many a you are there?" Faith asked bluntly, getting straight to the point. A glance at Jem revealed that he was looking a bit better and she upped the pace a little.

"Fifty-two," Brock answered promptly. "Including Gunnarr's people."

"Good," Faith nodded as she burned the number into her brain, relieved that he knew. "You thought about what you're gonna do when you run out of horses to eat?"

From the grave look on Brock's face, he had, and Faith felt a wave of relief wash a little of the load from her shoulders. At least the Cimmerians had a good leader.

"We gotta go off-world to trade for food," Faith told him. "But we don't know if we'll be able to return here once we've left."

"This is not the first time you have visited this planet, surely?" Brock interrupted her, a confused frown on his brow.

"We've been here before," Faith admitted. "But we don't exactly have the best track record with 'Gate travel. And don't call me Shirley.

"Someone's gonna have to leave anyway to go get Val's mom," she continued, giving Brock no time to ask when he had called her Shirley, and leaving both Brock and Jem with puzzled looks on their faces. "So we might as well all go and test if we can come back or not."

"What should we do if you do not?" Brock asked her.

"We'll get Mama T to you if we can't," promised Faith. "An' we'll try to get some food through. Worse case, I'll get Kay to leave you a list of trading planets. We'll do our best to come back."

"I understand," Brock told her, nodding thoughtfully. "We will abide here until your return. Then, we shall speak again."

"Sounds like a plan," Faith approved with a grin. "If you can get me a list of stuff you need in twenty minutes, we'll see what we can do."

"In which case," said Brock, "I shall see you soon."

**l**

Jon, Oz, Jool and Teal'c lingered in Cleveland only long enough to confirm that Andrew's "mojo" was as bad at finding Vala Mal Doran as it was at locating Cyril Leighton. With few goodbyes, and a caustic reminder from Jon to keep his cellphone switched on at all times, Andrew's team left him waving a forlorn goodbye at their backs from the steps leading up to the slayer house.

As soon as they were outside the influence of the Council's wards they would appear on the Odyssey's sensors, who would be waiting for them to find a deserted location before transporting them to the site of the failed attempt to recover Vala. Andrew on the other hand, headed inside, making for the room he'd been assigned with the intention of meditating until he worked out why all his attempts at scrying were failing.

Before he made it there however, he was intercepted by a small yet very determined slayer, intent on finding her "Murray".

**l**

The food was delectable. She demolished every bite of it with relish, wiping the bread she had been provided on the plate to catch every drop of the sauce when it was all gone. Finally replete, she leant back in her seat, feeling more able to deal with her circumstances. Licking her fingers clean, she was drying them with her napkin as the waitress slid a small piece of paper onto the table with a friendly smile.

"Whenever you're ready, honey," the waitress said, already moving away.

Her heart fell as she read the figure on the bill, knowing that there was no way she could pay it. Nervously, she looked around the crowded room. The two waitresses were busy catering to their customers and no-one was paying any attention to her. One of the men at the counter shifted slightly as he read his paper, revealing a shiny badge clipped to his belt. Turning back around, she took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do.

She stood up, heading for the door. She was halfway there when a stocky bald man wearing a stained white apron stepped into her path.

"How ya doin'?" he asked with a friendly smile.

She smiled sunnily back at him, returning the greeting, "How are _you _doing?"

"Ah, terrific," he told her. "I'm Sal, the owner."

"Sal, the owner... of Sol's Diner," she said, confused.

"Yeah, Sol was the original owner," explained Sal. "I bought the place from him."

"Oh," she said, politely interested.

"So, how was lunch?" he asked, still smiling.

"Delicious," she reassured him.

"Delicious enough to... pay for?" he suggested, getting serious now.

"Yes," she said definitely. "If I had the money, I would certainly have paid for that meal, _and _given the lovely waitress a sizeable gratuity." Catching sight of his look of disbelief she assured him, "The service was impeccable."

"Look, lady," Sal said, losing patience with her. "Everybody's got problems. I got rent on this place, a mortgage, a wife, three kids, and Shih Tzu with a recurring gastrointestinal condition that requires a very specialised diet. Alright?"

"Okay," she said meekly. "I'm sorry for trying to cheat you," she told him with a helpless shrug.

"O-okay," said Sal, thinking. "Alright, look. If I let you leave, can I trust you to come back with the money you owe me?"

Her answer was easy, "No."

"No?" Sal repeated, blinking in surprise. "What d'you mean 'no'? You tellin' me you can't be trusted?"

"Truthfully?" she asked, leaning back against a nearby empty table. "I don't know," she told him, the urge to confide in _someone _finally overwhelming her. "I-I don't remember. I have no idea who I am, much less what I am capable of. All I know for certain is that, about an hour ago I was lost, hungry, and drawn to the delightful aroma for the blue plate special."

Sal laughed, glancing around the room, "Is this a joke?"

"I have absolutely no memory of my life prior to wandering in here," she said earnestly, willing him to believe her.

The scepticism faded from Sal's face, replaced by concern. "If that's true, we need to get you to a hospital," he said, grabbing hold of her wrist.

The contact made her stomach roil and the diner faded away, replaced by a startlingly clear image of a room filled with equipment, of being strapped to a gurney with wires attached to her body.

"No hospitals!" she insisted, breaking free from the vision and Sal's grip.

"Whoa, whoa," soothed Sal, holding his hands up in peace. "Whoa. Hang on."

The man with the police badge on his belt stood up, stepping towards them to interrupt, "Hey. Everything okay here, Sal?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Sal told him. The policeman didn't look convinced and Sal waved him back to his seat with a smile, "Don't worry about it."

Reluctantly, the officer sat, picking up his paper again even though it was obvious that his interest lay elsewhere for the moment.

"Let me go," she whispered to Sal, fixing her pleading eyes on his face.

"Go where?" he asked quietly.

"Please," she begged.

"What, y-you got a home?" he asked. "You got a family?"

"I don't know," she said desperately. "I would pay you back. I would. Just right now I don't have the means."

Sal looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can do somethin' to help ya," he said, patting her on the shoulder.

**l**

It was raining on Camelot. Faith ignored the drizzle, leading the group behind her down the stone steps of the Stargate platform. There'd been more than a few complaints about returning to Camelot; Elle hadn't wanted to leave her father, Liss hadn't wanted to stop tinkering with the Ancient ship, Mallie hadn't wanted to leave Flash with the Cimmerians in case they ate him while she was gone, and Hal had had to be restrained from bringing books with him. Faith had practically bribed him with a glowing description of Merlin's Library. The former soldier's eyes were bright as he took in his new surroundings, excited to be there. So was Elle. The excitement of the Stargate trip had buoyed the Cimmerian slayer's spirits and she was practically bouncing. Val was clearly pleased to be home while the others, who'd been with Faith for longer, were taking the transition in their stride.

Faith didn't show it, but she was secretly pleased. That they'd made it to Camelot was a good sign in her eyes, and she had already added the 'Gate address to her list of Places To Run To When The Shit Hits The Fan. It was good to know that there was somewhere the Powers would let them go.

It didn't take them long to come within sight of the stone village of Camelot. Word of their arrival must have been carried ahead of them because, to Faith and the other slayers' surprise, the people of Camelot had come out to meet them.

"Valencia!" Teegara's ecstatic cry carried easily on the wind to slayer ears. "My baby!"

Val cringed.

"You wanted her," Faith reminded her.

"We need her," countered Val.

"Valid," noted Faith, walking forward to greet Meurik, the Governor of Camelot.

Teegara reached her daughter first, wrapping her arms around her in a crushing hug.

"Mother!" Val's muffled voice protested in embarrassment. "I am fine."

"Faith," Meurik greeted Faith with a warm smile and a firm handshake. "When word reached me that the Portal had activated I wondered if it might be you, but I scarcely dared hope that you would return to us so quickly."

"It's good to see you too, M," Faith told him sincerely. "How's it going?"

"Agreeably," replied Meurik, familiar with the Tau'ri phrase. "I trust that you are all well?" His gaze lingered on Halstrom and Elifa as Gelath sheepishly joined his wife and daughter, Ramus by his side.

"This is Elle and Hal," Faith introduced the two with a jerk of her thumb. "They're cool."

"Faith!" Faith abruptly found herself imprisoned by a pair of arms. She stiffened in Teegara's embrace as the motherly woman poured out her thanks for taking care of Valencia, her eyes meeting Gelath's humbly grateful gaze.

Fortunately Val arrived quickly to distract her mother, "Mother, come and meet Elle."

Teegara allowed herself to be led away and Faith turned back to Meurik, eager to put the incident behind her. "Don't suppose SG-1 are here?" she asked, and was unable to suppress the sudden flame of hope that flickered in her heart.

"Sadly, no," said Meurik, snuffing the flame. "We have not heard from them since last you were here."

"Damn," Faith said morosely. She shoulda known better than to hope.

"As always, the gates of Camelot are open to you and your friends," Meurik told her, hoping to raise her spirits.

"Thanks, M," said Faith, summoning a smile.

"Please do not think that we are not glad to see you once again," Meurik began as they walked towards Camelot.

"But..." prompted Faith.

"When you left, you had no intention of returning for some time," said Meurik. "I merely wondered what happened to make you change your mind?"

"I'm glad you asked," Faith told him with a grin, clapping him on the shoulder.

Meurik staggered.

**l**

General Landry met them as they stepped out of the elevator with the words, "What happened?"

"It rained," Jon told him succinctly.

"All traces of Vala Mal Doran's scent were washed away," Teal'c added as General Landry's face clouded over.

"What he said," said Oz, tipping his head toward Teal'c.

"Has he cracked yet?" Jool demanded eagerly.

"Not yet," Hank admitted, leading the way through the SGC's hallways. "The rest of SG-1 have been interrogating the operative we recovered from the warehouse for several hours now. So far, he's refusing to co-operate."

"Anything we can do to help, sir?" offered Jon, and Hank cast a wary glance at Jool. The last time SG-13 had been allowed to interrogate a prisoner, Ba'al's nose had been broken.

"I'd like to keep the investigation on record for the moment," the General hedged. "As much as possible," he conceded, thinking of Andrew Wells' attempts to magically locate Vala and Osbourne's unnatural tracking abilities.

"Perhaps I may be of some use," volunteered Teal'c and Hank looked at him gratefully.

"This way," he told him.

**l**

Sal kept a close watch on the strange woman as she hummed along to the music playing over the radio, hips swaying to the rhythm of the beat while she washed the diner's pots and plates, her arms buried deep in the snowy suds that filled the sink. She didn't look like she was about to make a run for it anytime soon and even if she did, Sal reckoned that she'd done more than enough work to cover her bill.

In fact, she looked almost happy, if that was possible for someone who didn't even know her own name. The more he talked to her, the more he believed this amnesia story of hers. She was completely open about it, answering all of his questions; and he had a lot! It was as though, having decided to trust him, she had put herself in his hands, relying on him to know what was best. Not that she paid much attention to his suggestions.

Sal worried about her. She was still refusing to go to a hospital, and she clammed up whenever any of the waitresses came into the kitchen, eyeballing them with wary distrust almost as if she expected them to kick her. She hadn't really panicked though, until he'd suggested getting the police involved. It had taken him almost a quarter of an hour to calm her down and convince her not to disappear into the rain. She didn't even have a coat.

He couldn't help wondering who she was, and where she'd come from. Above all, he wanted to know what had happened to her. He'd insisted on checking her for a head injury, but found nothing to account for her memory loss. What kind of trauma had caused her to forget who she was?

**l**

Daniel Jackson was rapidly reaching the limits of his fabled patience. After hours of SG-1's best and most intimidating interrogation techniques the Trust operative was still obdurately refusing to talk. Beyond volunteering the information that he was "pretty sure" he'd seen Vala making a run for it, Gregory Weaver had refused to say anything more. It was only thanks to Sam's computer wizardry that they knew his name. They'd tried approaching him together, and separately, all to no avail. Now, Daniel was giving it another shot, while Mitchell and Sam watched from the observation room above. But the stubble-jawed archaeologist was running out of ideas, and time. It was vital that they found Vala before the Trust.

"So what did you want with her?" he asked yet again. "I mean, what _exactly _was going on in that warehouse?"

"Look, I already told you," Gregory said exasperatedly. "I can't say!" he said, looking up at Sam and Mitchell, clearly visible through the toughened glass of the window separating the two rooms. He turned back to Daniel as he continued, "It's not that I don't wanna help you, but right now I'm more concerned for my well-being."

"We can't protect you," Daniel promised him.

"No, you can't" Gregory told him.

Daniel opened his mouth to argue the point, and then closed it again as the door behind him opened. He twisted in his seat to see who it was, and smiled for the first time since Vala had been kidnapped as he recognised his Jaffa team-mate. He turned back to the handcuffed man in front of him.

"Okay," he said cheerfully, shrugging.

Startled by the sudden change of events, Gregory watched with growing alarm as Daniel got up, heading for the door. He glanced up at the observation room to see that Sam and Cam were moving towards their door as well, their expressions regretful. In the hallway, Gregory could see three people in Stargate Command uniforms talking to General Landry. He didn't recognise any of them from the SGC personnel files he'd read. The cold glares that the green-eyed woman and the violet-haired man directed at him sent his heart rate racing as adrenaline flooded his system, his body responding to ancient instincts screaming at him to flee. Who _were _they? And how _old _were they?

"He's all yours," Daniel told Teal'c, slapping him on the shoulder as they passed each other.

"Where're you going?" asked Gregory, his voice laced with high-pitched panic.

"I'll be out in the hall," Daniel said nonchalantly. "Just yell _loudly _if you need me."

As the door slid shut behind Daniel, Gregory turned his attention to Teal'c, silent and implacable as he advanced towards him. "Don't bother," Gregory told him with false bravado. "Your Jaffa interrogation tactics won't work. Believe me, I've seen some pretty horrible things in my time. You can't break me."

Setting his jaw, he stared straight ahead as Teal'c reached him, preparing himself for the torture the brute was sure to inflict. Leaning in close to the man, Teal'c began to whisper in his ear...

In the hallway outside, the reunion between the two teams was going well. Daniel and Jon had successfully managed to make eye contact and mutter one another's name, while Sam and Jool had actually hugged. Fortunately, a nudge from Oz had ensured that the lecherous grin was wiped from Jon's face before either of the women could notice it. Now, the initial pleasantries exhausted, they had fallen naturally into conversation, their topic the man imprisoned on the other side of the wall.

"A member of this facility gets kidnapped unchallenged, it's no wonder he doesn't think we can protect him," said Sam.

"But we _can _protect him," Daniel protested.

"Yeah, by locking him away for the rest of his life," Jon pointed out, and Daniel was forced to nod in agreement.

"What can you say? There's a downside to workin' for super-villains." said Cam with a shrug. "Well, this is probably gonna take a while. What d'ya say we grab a bit to eat?"

"_Great _idea," Jool said thankfully, her stomach growling loudly in anticipation. As she spoke the blast door opened and Teal'c stepped out into the corridor. Her face fell as surprise etched its lines on everyone else's.

"You're done?" asked Sam, her eyebrows raised high.

"He was surprisingly forthcoming," Teal'c solemnly informed them.

**l**

Faith had only had to explain the situation once. M had immediately offered any assistance Camelot could render to the displaced Cimmerians, and Mama T had insisted that she be taken to them as soon as possible. The plump healer was currently dashing around her house like a headless chicken as she attempted to pack everything that might be of use. Val had already had to prevent her from taking the kitchen sink.

Ramus was just as bad. The little boy seemed to be constantly underfoot as he alternated between shoving his belongings in amongst half-packed crates and listening to his older sister's tales of her adventures with rapt attention and wide, adoring eyes. It seemed like the house was full of slayers, rushing everywhere as they helped Valencia's mother, and in the centre of it all stood Faith, watching the proceedings with a growing sense of detachment. She had the strangest sense that something was wrong, that she'd forgotten something or someone.

But she knew where everyone was. Kay and her lists were with M, while Faith had asked Liss to take Hal to Merlin's Library, after she'd discovered that the Ori man couldn't read Ancient. The two were under instructions to bring any books that mentioned the Ori. To her surprise, Nya had volunteered to go with them. Faith had let her go, hoping that spending time with Hal would help Ny move past her distrust of him. Either that, or the Simarkan slayer would eventually ferret out proof that he was working against them. Faith doubted Ny'd find that proof, but she'd been wrong before.

Everyone else was here. Val, Mallie, Elle...

"Where's Jem?" asked Faith.

"Helping Father with the forge," Val informed her, on her way past with an armful of plants she must have just pulled up from the garden, judging by the muddy state of her clothes, arms and face.

That wasn't it either. Faith frowned, shifting uneasily. "I'm gonna go talk to Meurik 'bout a cart or something to shift all this stuff," she said.

No-one objected, and she wandered outside, still frowning as she struggled to place the origin of the strange sensation. A shouted greeting from Gelath pasted a smile on her face as she returned his wave with one of her own, but it didn't last long once she was beyond the small forge attached to the house. Everything was going exactly to plan, far better than she'd hoped. So why did she still have a vague sense that she'd lost someone?

"Faith!" called Kay and Faith blinked several times, looking around to locate the older slayer. She and Meurik were just across the street, and they hurried over to her. "Just who we were coming to see," Kay continued as the three met. "Meurik has a proposition for you."

Faith's eyebrows climbed her forehead and Meurik shifted uncomfortably under her gaze as he explained, "Some of the younger men wish to travel with you when you leave us," he told Faith. "Three and twenty of our best fighters, all pledged to aid you in your quest."

"Gee," said Faith, taken off guard by the offer. "I don't know what to say." A glance in Kay's direction was no help either; the older woman wasn't letting her opinion of the idea show on her face. "Thanks, but... with the food situation..."

"Each man has sworn to provide at least one beast, towards his upkeep," Meurik explained earnestly.

Faith couldn't think of another argument. Twenty three warriors could mean the difference between victory and defeat if Valhalla was ever attacked. She glanced at Kay again and the corners of the older woman's eyes crinkled at her. Faith made her mind up.

"We'd be honoured to have them," she said sincerely, smiling at Meurik. "How soon can they be ready?"

"They await only word that you will permit them to join you," Meurik informed her.

"Which we will now spread," finished Kay with a bright smile. "How fares Teegara's packing?"

"I think she's almost finished," Faith told them. "We're gonna need another cart or something though."

"I will see to it immediately," Meurik promised.

"Good," sighed Faith. "I'm gonna... go check on Hal and the others."

"We will meet you at Teegara's," Kay called after her. She stared after Faith with a worried frown for several moments before hurrying to catch up with Meurik.

Faith was more preoccupied with her thoughts, allowing her feet to carry her towards Merlin's Library with almost no conscious effort on her part. She wished she could figure out why she felt so on edge when everything was going well for once. She felt that if only she knew the reason, it might make her feel better. As it was, it was freaking her out, not knowing why she was feeling this way.

"Faith!" Nya at least, was pleased to see her, breaking out into a rare smile as Faith entered Merlin's Library.

"Hey guys," Faith said, returning the smile. "How's it going?"

"Slowly," grimaced Liss, hunched over a large tome. "Please tell me you've come to help."

"Sorry," Faith shrugged. "Can't read Ancient."

"Ah, but we are making progress!" Hal protested, a jovial twinkle in his eyes. "Nevertheless, it is a task that will probably take some days."

"You've got a couple more hours," Faith told him. "Max." She'd known he was a watcher-type from the start. Nevertheless...!

"But... but!" sputtered Hal.

"We'll do what we can," Liss promised, turning back to the book she was skim-reading with renewed enthusiasm.

"Faith..." Nya said quietly as the Tau'ri slayer approached her.

"Yeah?" asked Faith, a slight encouraging smile on her lips. Of all the slayers Faith had found, Nya was the most quiet and withdrawn, probably because of her separation from her daughter and her life before she had followed Faith from Simarka. Consequently, Faith always tried to keep a little more patience for her than the others got.

"What do these say?" Nya asked her, indicating the two neatly folded letters addressed in Faith's spiky handwriting lying on the table beside her.

Faith sucked in a breath as the sight hit her like a blow to the gut, bittersweet loss contracting around her heart. At least she knew what was wrong, she thought wryly. Cam. Even after all this time, she still longed for him. Damn him! She'd been almost happy until he'd come along, blundering into her head. Even after they'd got rid of the mind-link, she hadn't been able to get him out of her head. She'd broken up with Robin because of him, and gone running off to a whole other planet to rescue him when he was in danger. Why did he have to be so nice to her onboard the Korelev? Being with him then had been so easy. Like breathing air. There had been no real need for words between them. And then, during the battle, he'd kissed her. She could still remember the taste of him...

...And Nya was still waiting for a reply. Along with Liss and Hal, their eyes curious as they rested on her. Unbelievably, Faith felt the beginnings of a blush; her first since she was eight. She struggled ruthlessly to suppress it.

"Didn't you tell her?" she asked Liss, striving for a normal tone.

Liss shrugged, "I don't know Tau'ri."

"It's English," Faith told her. "One of Earth's languages."

"How many are there?" asked Hal and Faith shrugged helplessly in reply, unable to answer him. Hal persisted, "How many do you know?"

"I'm best at English," said Faith. "My Latin and Greek are kinda shaky, but I can get by in China if I really have to."

"But what do they say?" Nya asked, fascinated by the spidery characters.

"This one says Buffy Summers," Faith said, pointing. "This one, SG-1. They're letters."

"To your friends back on Earth," Liss misunderstood. "We understand."

It felt like a lifetime since she'd left them behind for Cam to find. Faith traced the edge of the letter addressed to SG-1, wondering if he'd ever read it. Resolutely she thrust the thought from her head. Of course he would. The SGC weren't the types to leave Ancient technology lying around the galaxy. He'd be back.

Would he read B's letter? She hoped he would. She'd felt freer to talk in B's letter, although she'd avoiding mentioning Cam, knowing that the United States Government would read it before her sister slayer. B'd get it though, she was confident about that. Henry Hayes liked the Slayers.

So she'd poured her heart out in the letter to B, hoping he'd read it and that somehow, Cam knowing what she'd done while she was away from him would pull him a little bit closer to her. It was ridiculous... she shouldn't feel this way about someone. Not so quickly, and not for so long. She'd never been so celibate!

Faith couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped from her chest. She should tell B that!

Why not? It wasn't like she didn't have time. It'd take a while for everything to be loaded once Mama T had finally finished packing. She really should let B know what had happened since she'd first written her letter...

Perhaps it was the soothing sound of nothing but people breathing and Nya's footsteps as she prowled the library, or the warm familiar scent of musty books that finally triggered the connection in Faith's brain. She was halfway through a sentence about the Cimmerians when it hit her, bringing her quill to a sputtering halt.

"Oh, hell no!" she exclaimed aloud.

Liss and Hal's heads lifted, turning towards her and footsteps clattered on the stairs to Merlin's Laboratory as Nya raced up them.

"What is wrong?" she asked as she burst into the room.

"Valhalla means heaven," Faith explained with a grimace that told the others her feelings on the subject.

"What's wrong with that?" asked Liss, frowning in confusion.

"I see your meaning," said Hal, nodding. "You worry that with a name like that, the Cimmerians will treat their new world as a land of plenty."

"When really it's gonna be nothing but hard work for them to live there," Faith finished.

"So what do you suggest instead?" Liss asked her, still frowning despite no longer being confused.

Faith shrugged helplessly, "I dunno."

"Ummm... Faith?" said Nya as the silence stretched on. "How do I make the old man go away?"

"Old man?" Faith asked, puzzled. "You mean Merlin? Crap! Show me what you touched."

**l**

Morgan Crash had promised that Ba'al would receive his request before the day was out, and when Wolfram & Hart promised something, they delivered. Even if it meant altering reality. Fortunately, in Ba'al's case, nothing so drastic was required. Nevertheless, the files containing the information he had demanded in return for the cyborg's remains arrived in an armoured truck, escorted by Wolfram & Hart's own security men. The records they guarded were considered too valuable to fall into just anyone's hands. Ba'al wasn't just anyone; he was a Wolfram & Hart client in his own right, having long ago decided that relying on the Original's contract would be foolhardy in the extreme. Moreover, he was a client in possession of one of Wolfram & Hart's secrets.

As the clone watched the men unloading box after box of data, a cold smile spread across his saturnine face. At last, the secrets of the Watchers Council were now his.

He wondered what files Wolfram & Hart held on the Stargate program.

**l**

Sol's Diner closed at ten every night. She didn't know it but normally Sal went home at five so he could spend time with his wife and children. Today however, he stayed until the end of the day, snatching a quick phone call home to let his wife know he'd be working late. She probably shouldn't have eavesdropped on his conversation, but she hadn't been able to resist the urge to know who he was calling, and what he was saying about her. He hadn't mentioned her.

Everyone gone, she followed him like a lost puppy as he moved around the premises, checking that everything was clean and ready for the breakfast rush the next day, her bright eyes taking in all that he did. Sal let her sit next to him as he totalled up the day's takings before placing it in the safe, taking care not to let her see the combination. All but a small pile of notes that he'd placed to one side, and which puzzled her until he picked them up and began to count them into her hand.

She tried to protest, overwhelmed by his generosity, but Sal insisted.

"You earned it," he said, and that was all he would say on the subject until she stopped trying to give the money back to him.

"Now," said Sal, when the short-lived argument was over, "You thought any about what ya gonna do for the night?"

She'd thought about it almost constantly since night fell, and come up with many ideas. None of which seemed remotely feasible now, staring out of the wind-lashed diner window at the inhospitable darkness that lay beyond. What should she do? Where should she go?

"No," she admitted reluctantly.

"Well, you could always go to a motel," Sal suggested nonchalantly. "You pick a crummy enough one, you might even have enough left over for breakfast."

"Great," she said, attempting a cheery grin.

"Of course," Sal said, scratching the stubble on his jaw. "There's always the storage room..."

"The storage room?" she asked, her heart rising with hope although she tried (unsuccessfully) to keep it from showing.

"Yeah," said Sal. "Now, I'm not sayin' it's the Ritz or anythin', but it's got a camp bed. I used to crash here sometimes, back when the kids were younger," he explained. "You'd be doin' me a favour," he cajoled when she dithered, unsure whether or not to go on taking advantage of Sal's generosity. "There's been some burglaries in the neighbourhood over the last couple a months... not that I'm expectin' anythin' t'happen, it's just, it'd give me some peace of mind, knowing someone was here. Ya know?"

"O-okay," she decided. "I'll do it!"

It was the least she owed Sal after all, she reasoned as he showed her to the small storeroom and helped her to make up the small camp bed for the night. He'd taken her in even after she'd tried to steal from him, even given her money.

Alone in the diner, after Sal had gone, the shadows loomed large in the corners of the storeroom, and every strange noise made her jump. Telling herself firmly that there was nothing to be scared of, she snuggled down into the sleeping bag Sal had given her, squeezing her eyes shut until sleep came and took her away from her problems.

But hand in hand with sleep crept the nightmares.

**l**

It took Faith over an hour to figure out how to make the hologram of Merlin go away again. In the end, she only had time to scribble an ending to her letter to Buffy before they left the library, taking several books with them. Back at the house, a crowd had gathered to watch the last few crates being loaded on the cart the villagers had provided, and to wave goodbye to the band of heroes and the sons of Camelot that would travel with them. Faith recognised a few of the men helping from the battlefield where the slayers had trained. She racked her memory for names, but couldn't remember being introduced to any of them.

Something that Meurik soon remedied. As soon as the Governor of Camelot saw Faith, Hal, Liss and Nya approaching, he broke off his conversation with Mama T, striding towards Faith with a beaming smile. Twenty-three men were lined up for Faith's inspection, their names and faces blurring in her memory as she moved along the line. They were all so eager, and so young. Every one of them had a bright light gleaming behind their eyes, and Faith really didn't want to be the one who caused that light to dim, replaced by the dark shadows that she knew lurked in the depths of her own eyes. But she had already agreed, and now, with so many people watching, she couldn't say no. She knew enough of these people's culture to know that rejecting the warriors in front of her would bring each one of them dishonour, and further dishonour to the city of Camelot. She couldn't bring herself to do it. The people of Camelot had opened their hearts and homes to them. They had given them shelter, and food when they had needed it. She couldn't refuse them this.

Eventually they were ready to go. Their procession through the city took on the air of a parade as the onlookers cheered and threw flowers in their path, adding to Faith's growing sense of disassociation. Stuff like this just didn't happen to her. She burrowed into the centre of the slayers, drawing comfort from their closeness.

It wasn't until they were out of the city walls that she emerged, pushing her way forward to stare open-mouthed at the collection of animals waiting for them. Temporary pens had been erected outside Camelot to hold cattle and sheep in separate enclosures. Besides the larger animals, another three carts were waiting, holding caged chickens, squealing piglets and crates of food respectively. Faith's jaw dropped at the sight.

She tried to protest, to argue that it was too much, but Meurik refused to listen to her reasoning. Camelot, he assured her, would not starve. Ever since Val had removed the sword from the stone and Faith had defeated the Black Knight, tributes from the outlying villages had flowed into Camelot, making the city more prosperous than ever. They could well afford to donate a few animals to the cause. Besides, added Kay, it was just a drop in the water compared to what it would take to make the Cimmerians self-sufficient.

Faith didn't even have to wonder how they'd get the livestock through the Stargate. Mallie had already figured that one out, and was all too happy to explain it all. In great detail. More hurdles had been placed in a long lane, all the way to the Stargate. They had only to activate the Stargate and word would be passed along the line of volunteers stationed at key points to encourage the beasts along. The cows would be released first, followed by the sheep a few minutes later with the carts bringing up the rear. Herd mentality would take over, and the animals should technically be funnelled through the Stargate with no problems.

Faith had her doubts that the scheme would work (since when did Scooby plans ever go to plan?) but one look at Mallie's bright, expectant face and all she could say was, "Well done."

They said goodbye to Meurik there, and Faith had to swallow a lump of genuine emotion as she shook the fatherly man's hand. Every time they met he impressed her with his warmth and kindness, and this time he had exceeded all her expectations. She couldn't find the words to tell him that, and so she was forced to settle for a heartfelt thank you, and squeezing his hand a little harder than she normally would. Not wanting to offend her, Meurik repressed his wince and refrained from flexing his aching hand until Faith's back was turned.

It didn't take long for the original group of travellers to reach the Stargate. Val's family, and the warriors that would be travelling with them were waiting outside Camelot for their turn to make their way to the Stargate and the new planet that awaited them beyond the Ancient device. If the Powers didn't decide to fuck everyone up by sending them somewhere else.

Directing a silent plea of, "Please," skyward and in the general direction of The Powers That Were, Faith told Jem to dial the 'Gate.


	31. Cogito Ergo Sum Part 4: Cal Meh

**A/N**

Sorry for the long wait but far too much has happened since the last chapter for me to list it all so I shan't even attempt to. We're about to have two Vals which may get a little confusing, but hopefully it's obvious from context which is which.  
Enjoy!

**Cogito Ergo Sum, Part Four: Cal Meh**

The stars in the dark sky above her, familiar after only one night spent under them, were a welcome relief to Faith. She sighed happily, her shoulders slumping as one small worry was appeased. They were back. Behind her, the Stargate shut off with an electronic hiss and she smiled as she picked Jem out of the crowd around the Stargate platform. He was definitely handy to have around, she thought. Whatever sort of voodoo the Powers were using to mess with the 'Gate system whenever she or one of her girls dialled sure as hell wasn't affecting him. He was a loophole in their mojo, and Faith had a feeling that they were gonna need all the loopholes she could find. Would Hal work just as well, she wondered, catching sight of him in the crowd milling around the Stargate with Nya following in his shadow, her dark eyes wary and suspicious. Might be a good idea to test it... if she could get Nya to agree to let him off-world.

Enough standing and thinking for one day, she decided with a typical burst of energy. They couldn't hang round the 'Gate all night. They had to get the animals herded into the village, settle the Lost Boys of Camelot in for the night, introduce Mama T to her patients, check in with Brock...

Her mind preoccupied with the growing list of things to do before she could sleep, Faith's eyes automatically sought out the distant lights of the village on the horizon as she descended the stone stairs. The village with the ominous red glow hanging in the sky above it...

"Shit!"

Pushing her way through the crowd, Faith began to run.

l

The survivors of Cimmeria had gathered in the main square of their new home, around the carefully built funeral pyre they had erected to appease the spirits of those who had left the village behind. Having already overseen the lighting of the blaze, Vealdr hiked up the robe he wore so that he could once more step up onto the rickety platform that had been hastily constructed of wooden packing cases. Having suffered that indignity, he fussily smoothed out imaginary wrinkles before bowing his head for silence. The crowd, already muted, obeyed him. Vealdr allowed himself a secretive smile, pleased with himself and the power he wielded over his neighbours. He raised his head and arms, opening his mouth to speak.

"What the hell is going on?"

Vealdr gaped as Faith's angry voice rang out in the small stone square. The dark-haired slayer needed no stage as she strode into the light, her sister slayers ranged behind her. The crowd stared, agog.

"We saw the fire from the 'Gate," she continued, her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to announce that you're here?" She caught sight of something flapping in the fire and frowned, "Why are you burning _clothes_?"

"Faith," Brock was the first to recover, shouldering his way through the crowd to greet her and clasp her forearm with a welcoming grin. "I knew you would return."

"It's good to be back," Faith told him honestly, as her sensitive ears detected the distant rumble of boots running on cobblestones. "Wha'd we miss? Apart from the bonfire..."

Her gaze took in the whole scene, and Vealdr bristled as it flickered over him. Dismissed him, as he believed. It was one insult too many.

"How dare you interrupt the sacred naming?" he blustered.

"Sorry, V," Faith shrugged, "Didn't realise you'd started without us."

"What other choice did we have?" Vealdr asked acidly. "The death rites must be performed as the sun sets. Even a fool knows that."

Brock wasn't the only one gathered there who sucked in a breath as Vealdr threw the underhanded slur on Faith's capabilities as Valkyrie in the dark-haired woman's face. Faith on the other hand refused to bat an eyelid, maintaining a carefully neutral expression even as her eyebrows slowly rose.

"Besides," Vealdr continued, oblivious to the mutters from the crowd and the dark glances in his direction. "You were not here. I was under the impression that you had gone to procure aid." His pointed sneer at the slayers' empty hands spoke volumes about what he thought of their efforts.

Jem skidded into the square and Faith grinned as the crowd finally registered the sound of running men.

"Oh, we procured alright," she said, her grin spreading as the Knights of Camelot arrived at full pelt, a red-faced Hal bringing up the rear. "Easy boys," she purred, waving them back. "Weapons down. These are the good guys."

"More mouths to feed?" Vealdr jibed.

In addition to bidding farewell to family, friends and everything familiar, each man from Camelot had pledged food and animals to the fledging community in return for his passage through the Stargate and into the unknown, so it was entirely understandable that they bridled at Vealdr's remark. Valencia glared at Vealdr as Faith glanced uneasily over her shoulder at the potential mob from Camelot.

"More arms to bear, uh, arms in defence of this world," Faith retorted, faltering slightly as she mangled the Constitution to fit. "They paid their way."

She left unsaid the inference that _he_ hadn't and on cue, a clattering heralded the arrival of the carts, Val's family leading the way with Mama T at the reins. The healer assessed the situation with one look and handed the reins to her husband.

"Valencia!" she called to her daughter as she shuffled to the edge of the narrow driver's bench and prepared to clamber down. "Take me to my patients." Catching Faith's eye, she added almost as an afterthought, "And someone needs to tell these boys where to offload the livestock."

"You were successful?" Brock grinned at Faith.

"Better believe it," she grinned back.

"May I go with them?" Elifa asked Faith, eager to see her father once more. It seemed like days since she had left him here, but in reality it was mere hours.

Faith nodded and Elle took off like a shot as one of the knights stepped forward, taking off his steel helm to reveal his youthful face.

"Greetings..." he began confidently, and tailed off awkwardly when he realised that he had no idea what his new home was called.

"Cal Meh," Kay hurriedly supplied from the corner of her mouth.

"Cal Meh?" Faith demanded in an undertone.

The Knight beamed at Kay and began again as, on the stage, Vealdr sputtered incoherently. "Greetings Cal Meh, from Camelot, home of the once and future King..."

"It means sanctuary," Kay whispered back to Faith.

"Good name," Faith commented quietly, one ear on the Knight's speech. Something about bonds of trust... She wondered how long the speech Meurik had clearly had him memorise was.

"Thanks," Kay actually smirked, an expression Faith had never seen her wear before.

"... hand of friendship..." Uh oh. Looked like Vealdr was working his way up to a righteous rage. Faith was definitely getting the 'preacher interrupted mid-sermon' vibe from the stage, forcibly reminding her of Caleb.

"Valhalla!" Vealdr spat the word out, cutting across the Knight. "This is Valhalla!"

"Actually," said Faith, and the word seemed to hang in the air for a moment before it was fully processed by the Cimmerians gathered there. "It's not."

While Vealdr finally became so incandescent with rage that he actually held his breath, Faith continued speaking as she moved though the crowd towards him, "I guess it's a good thing we turned up when we did, 'cause there's something I need to clear up..." she said, closely flanked by the four remaining slayers as she hopped up onto the platform and turned her back on a red-faced Vealdr to face the crowd. "This is not Valhalla."

"How do you know that?" an anonymous voice called out from the back of the crowd as the Knights infiltrated the front.

"Because I'm not dead yet," Faith quickly replied, pinpointing the heckler and committing his face to memory. She flashed him a disarming wink, "And neither are you!

"This is not heaven," she told the crowd. "This is Cal Meh... a sanctuary. I won't lie to you – life here won't be easy, but that's because it's _life_. Just 'cause this is a refuge, doesn't mean that we can afford to relax our guard. There's a war on out there, and there's no Hammer here to protect you." Somehow Faith managed to resist the urge to slip in a crack about no more hammer-time, knowing that it would go over the heads of her audience and not wanting to lose them. "The Knights of Camelot have come to help us, and their home world has sent us food, but it's not enough. Not if we can't work together to put food on our tables and to protect our new world. Our home. Our sanctuary."

"Cal Meh!" hollered the Knight who had spoken earlier, and the other knights hastily followed his example.

"Cal Meh!" yelled the Cimmerians, not to be outdone.

Faith grinned at them all. "Cal Meh!" she shouted, driving her fist into the air.

"Cal Meh!" the crowd roared back.

As they cheered, Faith stepped back to clap a very purple Vealdr on the back. The little air still remaining in his lungs was violently expelled on a soft bark, and he staggered forward.

"Got 'em all warmed up for ya," she told him as he sucked in a deep breath of smoky hot air. "Do your thing."

As she jumped off the stage the Cimmerians surged forward to meet her, but the knights bore the worst of the brunt, clearing a path for Faith and the others. The Knight who'd led the cheering fell in at the back of the group as Faith stepped into the midst of the Cimmerians, slowly sobering now that Vealdr was alone on the stage.

She refused to acknowledge anyone, keeping her gaze fixed on where she was going. She hated making speeches, but she'd needed to make sure the Cimmerians knew that this wouldn't be an easy ride. They seemed to have taken it well but it was probably a good thing that she had a long list of stuff to do. She was almost out of the square when a frail hand curled around her forearm, stopping her in her tracks.

"Leaving so soon?" a wan-faced Hildar asked with a gentle smile, her husband hovering in the background with their two children.

"Yeah," Faith shrugged ruefully. "Gotta ton of stuff to take care of. You know how it is."

"Might not be the best idea," Gunnarr suggested, pointedly tilting his head towards the crowd and Vealdr, rapidly regaining his composure on the stage.

"He means folks would take it better if you stayed," Hildar added more diplomatically, with a reproving glance at her husband.

"Would if I could guys," Faith told them ruefully, not regretting it one bit. "But someone's gotta offload the carts."

"I'll do it," volunteered Kay. Faith stared at her and she shrugged diffidently, explaining, "I know where it's all supposed to go. I'll start dinner too."

"There is a feast planned afterwards," Hildar told them all.

"Then another dish or two won't go amiss," Kay said with a quick grin.

"Yeah, but we gotta settle the knights in," Faith hurriedly seized on another excuse.

"Actually," the knights' spokesman spoke up, and Faith wished that she could remember his name as he glanced back at his fellow knights. "With your permission, we would prefer to stay."

"Uh..." Faith blinked rapidly at him, flailing to find one more reason why she couldn't stay, aware that she was protesting too much. "Sure. Someone's gonna have keep watch though. I wanna know the second the 'Gate opens. I mean, we strolled right into town without anyone realising we were here. What if we'd been a buncha Ori?"

"Tristan, Melwas, you heard the Lady Faith," said the knight, turning to his men as two of them exchanged glances.

"Yes, Garth," they agreed, reluctant to miss the feast.

"Okay..." sighed Faith, giving up. "I guess we're staying."

**l DAY 1 l**

"Good morning, Sal!"

The chirpy greeting was enough to make Sal groan as he pushed open the door to the diner. He wasn't a morning person at the best of times, and after a night spent on the couch once Teresa found out about his latest employee coupled with this morning's discovery that Fifi's bowels had gotten the better of her again, he really wasn't equipped to deal with the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed woman quivering in front of him.

Grunting a reply, he shuffled behind the counter to fire up the coffee machine. While it bubbled away he busied himself with the morning start-up routine. She followed him closely, her sharp eyes taking in everything he did. By the time everything was running and the grill was heating up the coffeepot was full enough for him to pour himself his first cup. He took it with him as he started pulling chairs down from tables and setting them up. She helped him.

When they'd finished he poured himself another cup and took a seat at the counter with the morning papers he'd picked up on the way to work. She sat next to him and her knees jigged impatiently up and down as she waited for the coffee to make him more sociable. She couldn't explain how she knew it would, but she did.

The bell over the door jangled, making her jump. Sal looked at her then, his eyes screwed up like he was thinking hard. She wondered if he was about to tell her that he'd made a mistake and she couldn't work for him today, and had to swallow down the panic that rose in her throat like bile. Where would she go?

"Morning, Sal," said the blonde woman who'd arrived, taking off her coat to reveal the Sol's Diner uniform she was wearing.

"Morning, Blanche," replied Sal, still staring at _her_.

She swallowed again, her knees slowing to a halt. He was going to tell her to leave... she just knew it!

"You hungry?" he asked instead, and she nodded vigorously in reply, unable to speak around the relief.

"I already ate," said the blonde waitress as she started to wipe down tables.

"Pancakes sound good?" Sal asked.

"Oh, yes!" she told him enthusiastically. Pancakes sounded _great_!

"Right," said Sal, heaving himself off of the stool and taking his coffee with him into the kitchen. "Breakfast! Then we'll see about gettin' you a uniform..."

"Uniform?" she asked, her fingers plucking self-consciously at the fabric of the deep blue top she'd worn, well, ever since she could remember.

"Yeah," Sal grinned at her as he started measuring out ingredients. "You gotta have a uniform if you're gonna work here."

l

Cam hesitated in the doorway of Jackson's office, noting the stained mugs littering the room and the dark shadows beneath his team-mate's eyes. He wondered if Daniel had slept at all since Vala had been kidnapped and made a mental note to mention it to Doctor Lam. Right now the SGC veteran was poring over one of his many leather bound notebooks, his chin propped in the palm of his hand. Cam was loathe to disturb him, knowing the news he carried would not be welcomed. But it was that same information that compelled him to knock lightly on the doorjamb, knowing that he himself would prefer to hear similar news direct.

Jackson must not have been too deep in his research because he looked up with a slight frown at Cam's knock. He blinked up at Cam and wiped the frown away with a hand across his face.

"Jackson," Cam greeted him as he strolled inside the cluttered office. "How's it going?"

"Well..." sighed Daniel as he stood, closed his journal on his account of his first meeting with Vala aboard the ill-fated Prometheus and moved across the room to draw Mitchell's attention to his crowded desk. "From what we learned from the Trust operative, and the information provided to us from the Jaffa and the Tok'ra, this is what I've been able to piece together so far.

"Athena, Greek goddess of war, a.k.a. Charlotte Mayfield, a.k.a. the Goa'uld responsible for kidnapping Vala. Now, according to what I've learned, she was a minor player who rose to mid-tier status by pursuing alliances with more powerful rivals: Cronos, Camulus, Svarog, and even Anubis when he was first on the outs with the System Lords," Daniel told Mitchell, pulling out the relevant texts to show him as he spoke.

"So, her partnering up with Ba'al is just her latest power play?" asked Mitchell, squinting at the small text surrounding a line drawing of Athena. He was pretty sure it was written in Latin.

"No," Daniel contradicted him, delving back into the pile of books littering his desk. "It's more than that. See, we know Athena was once allied with Qetesh, the Goa'uld that formerly inhabited Vala. See, apparently, Qetesh double-crossed her when they partnered up to search for the _Clava Thessara Infinitas_," with the air of a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, Daniel laid an open book in front of Cam. "The Key to Infinite Treasure," he translated. "Now, according to legend, it would allow he who possesses it entry to a vast storehouse of riches hidden away by the Ancients prior to their ascension."

"Wow, that's big," Cam said absently, his eyes on the book but his mind preoccupied with his recent phone call with Jool. He'd already heard the Cliffs Notes version of all this from Sam, who'd checked in on Jackson earlier.

"Yeah, and by all indications nothing but an elaborate hoax," Jackson informed him.

"So they didn't find it?"

"No, but for some reason Qetesh wanted Athena to think she had. Athena believed her, which is why she went after Vala. And she used Ba'al's resources here on Earth to get her." Daniel finished bitterly. "Which reminds me," he realised. "I'm supposed to check in with Major Harper. He's got people querying hospitals in the area where Vala disappeared," he explained to Mitchell as he picked up the phone. "It's possible she may have been injured and has been unable to contact us."

"Hey, listen," Mitchell said awkwardly, shuffling his feet. "I, um… I spoke with Jool at the Medical Examiner's office. They're doing DNA testing on the remains recovered at the blast site. But it's gonna take a while."

Daniel hung the telephone receiver back in its cradle, looking worried. Then his lips firmed and his jaw set into a stubborn position. "You know," he said contemplatively, staring at the heap of books on his desk rather than at Mitchell. "When Vala first disappeared, when the Ori gate was destroyed, I refused to write her off. Although the odds were against it, I believed somehow she'd found a way to survive. And it turned out I was right." He looked at Mitchell then. "I wanna be right again."

"Sure," Mitchell said with a sympathetic nod. "I get it." He shrugged, "I just figured it's better to know."

"Yeah," said Daniel, not entirely sure he agreed. If they found Vala's DNA... "Thank you."

He picked up the phone again, an obvious dismissal, and started to dial the number he needed. He saw Mitchell nod again and turn to leave from the corner of his eye.

The phone was ringing in his ear and Mitchell was almost out of the door when Daniel suddenly remembered. He wasn't the only person in the room who'd had someone go missing. Faith and Mitchell's experience with the Mind-Melder had forged a close bond between the two in a remarkably short period of time. Mitchell tended to downplay the effect leaving her onboard an Ori mothership had had on him, but it was difficult to miss his reaction whenever information about her trickled into the SGC. Faith had been missing for months now but Mitchell still scanned every report from Earth's allies as soon as they received it, despite knowing better than most just how capable of looking after herself Faith Lehane was.

"Hey, Mitchell," he called, stopping the other man in his tracks. Typically, his phone call was answered before Daniel could say any more. He held up a finger to indicate to Mitchell that he should wait while Daniel spoke to the functionary on the other end of the line, "Uh, yes, Major Harper, please." Covering up the mouthpiece, Daniel spoke to Mitchell, "Thanks."

Cam shrugged. "No problem," he told Jackson before he left the room, heading back to his office. He'd rather have had better news for him but if there was one thing he'd learnt in his time at the SGC, you took what you got and rolled with it.

l

Dawn was starting to get the hang of this reality-hopping thing, or whatever it was. She'd arrive in a blaze of bright green light, hang around long enough to maybe make a friend or two, and then the nocturnal glowing would start to set in which was usually her cue to get ready for the next place. She'd picked up a small backpack along the way, filled it with essentials like deodorant and spare panties in case she found herself on another dino-world where things like basic hygiene hadn't been invented yet, and made sure she carried it everywhere when she started glowing in the dark.

Today's arrival seemed normal enough. Right up until the point when she opened her eyes to find four very green creatures staring at her, several boxes of forgotten pizza lying discarded at their three-toed feet. Going by the nunchaku one of them was holding in a semi-threatening way and the shells on their backs, Dawn guessed that she'd stumbled on a universe peopled by ninja turtles.

Okay... She'd come across weirder. Hadn't she?

"Dudes!" lamented the turtle in the orange mask, "She totally trashed the pizza!"

Maybe she hadn't.

l

If Faith had to solve one more problem, she was going to scream. She'd barely had time to wake up before Val had barged into her room with the news that her mom wasn't planning on sticking around _chez _slayer, that she wanted a place of her own. Faith had snatched a hasty breakfast in a kitchen crowded with slayers and men, listening to Mama T's version, before setting out to find Brock and confirm that the village had a forge. If they did, she was hoping it was empty.

Brock had been nowhere to be found. In fact, apart from the Knights milling around slayer central, nursing their hangovers, the entire village had been conspicuously short on men. Hildar had told her where they were, rounding up the loose animals in the Stargate clearing, the ones Faith and the others had brought through the night before.

Faith had completely forgotten about them. She'd returned to Slayer Central, intending to grab the others and go help out, but Kay had reminded her that the Knights couldn't keep living in the stables across from their house. So instead she'd ordered everyone who hadn't already found something to do to go help the Cimmerians, and gone house-hunting for the Knights. She was still looking when they got back, although she'd found a deserted blacksmith with a house next doors that she thought Mama T would like.

Even once she'd earmarked enough houses, it took a while to settle in all of the Knights. The problem was that, with the exception of the temple, there wasn't a big enough building to hold them all and Vealdr was firmly installed in the temple. A couple of the houses Faith had planned to put them in turned out to already have occupants and the Knights decided that they wanted to stick together. In the end, they took up most of the houses down the narrow lane that held the forge and a sprinkling of others nearby. Garth, their leader, had opted for a house almost exactly halfway between the road and Slayer Central.

Once she'd found the last Knight a home, she'd made her way back to the slayer house for a late lunch of leftovers, only to find herself pulled into a discussion between Kay and Brock about supplies. She was still trying to convince them to hold off on an off-world trading run, at least for today, when Mallie had shown up, flushed with the news that the scouts Brock had sent out had discovered farms not too far from the village.

Farms that Faith was expected to go out and inspect with Brock, despite not knowing the slightest thing about farming. She took Mallie with her, and slipped away as soon as she could, leaving Mallie enthusiastically discussing grain yield with Gunnarr, Brock and a bunch of other Cimmerians.

She'd made her own way back to the village and now she was loitering in the main square, enjoying a few precious moments of peace and quiet as the evening gloom gathered near. A large scorched mark in the centre of the square was the only sign of last night's raging inferno, and even that was vanishing under the onslaught of Cimmerian women armed with scrubbing brushes and buckets of soapy water. Just now though, the square was deserted and Faith could finally savour the feeling of being in a bad mood, without having to worry about taking it out on someone.

She didn't want to be here. Didn't want to have to be the one to deal with the challenges they were facing. She'd had enough of people constantly surrounding her. Even prison hadn't been this claustrophobic, and the Summers house during the final days of their showdown with the First hadn't felt so crowded.

Under normal circumstances Faith guarded her precious independence with a fierce pride. She'd fought hard enough to get it, after all. She lived footloose and fancy-free, responsible for only herself, and that was the way she liked it. She'd refused to let even Robin get too close, and he'd been her first steady boyfriend in, well, ever. She was used to going where she wanted, when she wanted, flying down black tarmac highways on her bike, alone with her thoughts. It had taken a prison sentence, but Faith had finally learnt to be comfortable with her own company.

Here, she didn't have that luxury. Every second of the day was filled with problems, people and, in some cases, problem people. Here, there was always someone watching her, waiting for her to make a mistake. She felt claustrophobic, and penned in. Memories of the black expanse of tarmac stretching into the horizon and the thrill of her bike thrumming beneath her filled Faith with a yearning so intense that it almost hurt.

A scrap of tattered and scorched cloth blew across the square, plastering itself across her boot in a desperate attempt to keep from being held at the wind's mercy any longer. Faith bent and picked it up, smoothing her thumb over the singed fabric. She still didn't get why the Cimmerians had burnt all of the clothes they'd found...

"Stop fretting." The voice at Faith's elbow made her jump, and she turned to face Ursula. The old woman smiled warmly at her as she continued, "I stopped them from burning all of them. Just the clothes people were wearing before they... left. I made sure the rest were put in your attics."

"Thanks," Faith said gratefully, a rare real smile springing to her lips.

"Folks will find they are not so squeamish come winter," Ursula assured her practically.

"When it comes..." sighed Faith, her mind leaping into the long list of things that needed doing before winter hit. Like figure out how long they had before it hit... Gradually she became aware that Ursula was still standing next to her, waiting for her attention to drift back to their conversation.

"Sorry," she apologised. "What's up?" As Ursula frowned in confusion, Faith elaborated, "What did ya want?"

"Do I need a reason to speak to you?" Ursula asked in return, her grizzled eyebrows rising as a smile lurked in the corners of her mouth.

"No," Faith admitted with a shrug. "But most people've got one."

"Ah, but I am not most people," remarked Ursula, her eyes twinkling as she shot her a conspiratorial grin.

Faith burst out laughing, the last of her bad mood finally banished. "True," she said as soon as she had composed herself. "And I guess I'm glad you're not."

"As am I," Ursula agreed placidly. "Really, life would be very dull if everyone was alike. Can you imagine a world peopled with Vealdrs?"

Faith could. She shuddered slightly as a chill ran down her spine at the thought.

"Exactly," said Ursula, nodding her head. "And speaking of different people, I like the new healer. She and I will get on well."

"Good," Faith smiled at her as her stomach rumbled, loudly reminding her that it really didn't want to skip another meal. The slayer began subtly steering Ursula in the direction of the slayer house. Kay was already cooking enough to feed an army, one more mouth wouldn't matter.

"And those men!" Ursula rhapsodised. "Oh, if only I were ten years younger...!"

l

Chaia heard the outside doors to her room open and quickly closed her eyes. Maybe, if she pretended she was asleep, the Prior would go away.

In the endless days since Tomin had left, Chaia had learnt a lot. She had learnt that the Bad Men were called Priors, and the Mean Lady was The Orici. She hadn't seen the Mean Lady again, but she'd seen a lot of Priors and she knew now that they all smelled. They didn't like it when she tried to talk to them. They wanted to talk to her about the Mean Lady and something called Origin, and she was s'posed to listen to them and be quiet. They 'specially didn't like it when she asked about her mother. One of them had smacked her across the face, knocking her to the floor, because Chaia asked when she was going to see her.

She had learnt to hate the four metal walls surrounding her, and the shining world that hung outside her window. The world had taken Tomin from her, and the walls kept her trapped inside. But she had also learnt that if she could get the grill off the small hole in the wall that brought air to her room, she would probably fit in the tunnel that lay beyond.

Right now though, as the inner doors to her room slid open and a solid bar of light fell across her bed, Chaia cleared the turbulent thoughts from her young mind and concentrated on breathing evenly. In... and out. In... and out...

A shadow fell across her face and she had to fight not to flinch. Just breathe... she told herself.

The soft mattress sagged as someone sat on the edge of the bed and Chaia's body rolled slightly towards them. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment before she could force it out of her body and she forced herself to relax. In... and out...

"This cannot be the little girl I left behind," a familiar and well-loved voice said in a low, amused tone that shattered the silence. Chaia's eyes flew open to see Tomin's smile as he looked down at her. "_My _girl lies curled up on her side, not stretched out on her back," he continued.

"Tomin!" Chaia cried happily, launching herself into his arms and snuggling close into his chest. "You came back!"

"Of course I did," he told her gently, frowning as he felt her ribs sticking through her thin nightgown. Had she lost weight? "I promised that I would, did I not?"

"Yes..." Chaia reluctantly admitted, surreptitiously pinching herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"But?" asked Tomin when she refused to elaborate.

"The Priors said that it was up to the Ori," Chaia told him, settling herself into a more comfortable position in his lap and pressing one ear to his chest so that she could hear the reassuring rhythm of his heart. "And the Ori are mean!"

"The Ori want only what is best for us," Tomin softly chided the young girl. "Sometimes what is best for us is not what we would wish for ourselves, but we must always remember that the Ori know in a way that we cannot, that through suffering comes a greater understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe."

Tomin would never forget the years he had spent crippled by his lame foot. It had taken the will of the Ori to straighten it and every step he had taken since was a reminder of their power. They had judged him worthy to fight in their name, an honour he had not looked for, and so they had stretched forth their hands and healed him. At their command he had travelled across galaxies and seen strange alien worlds that lived in ignorance of Origin. The Orici was the child of his wife, and She in return had given him the care of this precious child. Chaia... daughter of a Clava gone rogue. Chaia... who clearly was not getting enough to eat. Well, he would change that.

"I s'pose," Chaia absently agreed, fighting a yawn and losing.

"We must remember too that those who follow the path of Origin and obey the will of the Ori never die. Instead they ascend to take their place with the Ori, so it is easy to see why They love us so. They are merely those who have gone before us. As, one day, I will go before you." Tomin felt the thin body tense, heard the sharp little intake of breath and tightened his arms around Chaia as he continued, "But I promise you this, ascended or not, I will always watch over you."

Chaia seemed to accept this and a comfortable silence fell over the pair, content to simply hold one another. Gradually Tomin became aware that he had come directly from the final victory over the natives of the backward planet the ship orbited, and that he was giving off a distinct odour. Fortunately Chaia didn't seem to mind the stench of battle.

Finally, just when Tomin thought she had fallen asleep, a small voice piped up, "Tomin?"

"Yes?" he replied.

"Is my mother dead?"

She might just have well been asking why the world in her window didn't fall, so matter-of-fact was her tone. Tomin recoiled mentally and physically from the question.

"No!" he reassured her immediately, and then found himself hoping he had told the truth. He would surely be told if Chaia's mother were dead. But what would happen to Chaia if her mother were to die?

Tomin didn't want to think about that. Instead he told himself that the renegade Clava would soon realise the futility of their actions and surrender to Ori and Origin. Chaia would be reunited with her mother and he would see her between battles.

He didn't much like that plan either, but it was better than the alternative.

Chaia was still asking questions. "Then why does she no longer love me?" she wanted to know, her voice plaintive now.

"She still loves you," he comforted her. "Very much. But you were separated, remember?"

"By the Bad Man," Chaia agreed, nodding. "He wouldn't let me go through the water."

Tomin frowned. He had not heard Chaia's account of her parting with her mother before and it troubled him that it did not match the tale told to him by the Orici and Praemas. They had informed him that Chaia's mother had been convinced to turn her back on Origin by a fellow Clava, and had left her young daughter behind. Now he began to wonder... But he had a young girl's fears to calm before he could begin to dwell further on the matter.

"Your mother would be with you if she could," he told Chaia, tucking her into bed. "And because she cannot the Orici has given you me to love you in her stead." Leaning forward, he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Now go to sleep, and I shall be here in the morning."

"Promise?" Chaia sleepily demanded.

"I promise," vowed Tomin, patting her hand as he stood.

"Night," Chaia said around a yawn.

"Sleep well," Tomin told her, waiting until she had rolled onto her side before he left the room.

Dog-tired from battle he slowly walked back to his quarters, barely aware of his surroundings. He stripped off his armour without activating the lights and crawled between the sheets, too tired to take his turn in the bathing rooms. He'd go in the morning.

But instead Tomin lay awake for most of the night, worrying about Chaia.

**l DAY 2 l**

"Morning, Sal!"

This time Sal was better prepared for the chirpy greeting that assaulted his ears as soon as he had the diner door unlocked. Teresa had forgiven him and allowed him back into their bed, Fifi was doing much better, and he was already operating on an extra cup of coffee. What he wasn't prepared for was the cup of coffee that was thrust into his hand. That didn't mean he wasn't grateful for it.

"Thanks," he said in some surprise, automatically taking a sip.

He froze as his eyes travelled across his pristine diner. The chairs were down, the tables were wiped and it looked like he'd interrupted her while she was setting out the napkin holders and menus. Sal hastily swallowed his mouthful of coffee, made just the way he liked it.

"Would you look at this place!" he exclaimed approvingly. "You keep this up, I'm gonna hafta give you a raise."

She radiated happiness like a small sun, beaming at him.

"Good job I brought you something instead, hey?" Sal told her.

"A present?" she clapped her hands together excitedly. Sal dug in his coat pocket for the book he'd picked up on his way out of the house and handed it over.

"One Thousand and One Baby Names?" she read the title dubiously.

"I think it's Teresa's way of telling me she wants to try for a girl again," Sal explained. "Figured you might wanna take a look, see if there's anything you like. I can't keep calling you kid, can I?"

"I-I suppose not," she agreed, clutching the book to her chest. "Thank you, Sal."

"No problem, kid," he told her with a grin. "Pancakes?"

"Yay!" she replied enthusiastically, clapping her hands.

l

"Gee-yup!"

Faith stepped back as the wagon rumbled forwards under Mallie's expert guidance, unable to do anything other than watch Flash ascend the stone steps to the open Stargate, dragging the wagon behind him. Jem dashed from the dialling console to pull himself aboard, waving happily to Faith once he had got himself comfortably settled. She couldn't help but grin back at him and the incongruous sight of the horse and wagon, surrounded by armed men, disappearing through the Stargate. But a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach made her wonder if splitting up was really such a good idea.

Logically she knew that they needed to restock the animal population, and as quickly as possible. According to Liss the days were getting shorter, which meant that winter would be coming sooner rather than later. Liss was staying behind to work on the damaged ship. Elle was nursing her father. Hal was safely tucked up in his library, ready to be used as a back-up dialler if they needed him, and Nya...? Nya was standing guard over him of course.

Mallie knew what the farms needed to get them running again, and was the only one of them who could coax a horse and cart through the Stargate, so she had to go. So did Kay, who knew what the settlement needed, what it had, and where to find the best prices for both. Val had opted to go with them, leading the six Knights who went with them while Garth and the rest of the Knights worked in the fields of the farms with the Cimmerian men.

Which left Faith. She could've chosen to go with the trading party but she'd known she wasn't really needed, no matter what Mallie said. Besides, she'd have spent the whole time worrying about the others left on Cal Meh. This way she could do something useful while she worried about the traders instead. Not grubbing on the farms though... Faith shifted the long and bulky package she carried from one shoulder to the other and started walking, her back to the village. She had a theory she wanted to test before the others got back.

l

Jool was wearing flannel and jeans. Not exactly her normal everyday style, which tended more towards the classic and elegant, but at least she wasn't sticking out like a sore thumb in her surroundings. The locals were barely giving the Captain or her a second glance, which was the intended point of the exercise. Normally Jool would have had to be paid to wear flannel but in order to look like she belonged in the small town of Montrose she had volunteered.

Montrose was where Vala had been held captive, and the arrival of armed soldiers would have alarmed the locals. Instead, SG-13 and Doctor Jackson were maintaining a low profile while they searched for the missing member of StarGate Command. In order to cover more ground, they had split up. Daniel and Oz were mobile, driving around town in a rented SUV, while Jool and Captain O'Neil sauntered up and down the main street, trying to pick up a clue that might lead them to Vala.

At least it wasn't raining.

"This is pointless," Jool eventually declared, breaking into Jon's long-winded ramble about a girl called Cassie and a dog. She hadn't been listening anyway. "Vala's not here."

"Then where, oh wise one, should we look?" Jon snarked back at her. It had been a good story.

"Anywhere but here?" suggested Jool, her waving arm encompassing Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply as it swept in an arc that covered most of the street. "I mean, there isn't even a mall! It's hardly Vala's style."

"We already checked with the bus company," Jon reminded her. "She didn't leave town."

"Maybe she hitchhiked?" Jool was clutching at straws now. As much as she desperately wanted to find her best friend, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were looking in the wrong place. If Vala wanted to hide, she wouldn't stick around here. She'd be far too conspicuous. No, she'd head for a city and lose herself in the crowds.

"You wanna be the one to tell Danny we should give up?" Jon asked baldly, cutting to the heart of the matter.

"No..." Jool reluctantly admitted, shifting her weight from one foot to another.

"Then we keep looking," ordered Jon.

"Yes, sir," Jool muttered sarcastically, falling in just behind him as he strode up the street. She had to fight the urge to let her eyes drop to his jean-clad butt.

"I heard that."

"You were supposed to."

l

Faith had had no real destination in mind when she set out; she just wanted to get as far away from the village and the farmland to the south of the village as possible. So she headed east, ignoring a rough track that snaked up the side of the hill in favour of blazing her own trail. Brock's scouts hadn't had the chance to go beyond the rise of the hill in this direction yet, and Faith had made sure that they were all off exploring other areas today. She didn't want anyone getting hurt. Not that she'd told anyone that that was her real reason for suggesting Brock sent his men in different directions. In fact she'd carefully orchestrated things so that only Nya and Liss knew where she was going and neither of them knew exactly why. They were under strict instructions to cover for her while she was gone.

It didn't take too long for her to reach the top of the hill and once there her keen eyesight detected something that the scouts had missed. The track that she'd ignored continued to cut a winding path through the forested valley that lay in front of her, a path that led to a small huddle of buildings that blended into the steep cliffs of the opposite side of the valley. Curious, Faith started walking towards it.

She could almost have been walking through a forest on Earth. It was only the small things that she'd taken for granted back home that marked this out as an alien world. Things like birdsong, trails of airplanes cutting through the sky, and the small rustling noise of animals scuttling through the undergrowth were all missing. She could almost be the only living creature on this planet, and this far away from the village and the burdens of leadership she finally started to relax, shedding some of the tension that had knotted her shoulders and forehead. Almost inevitably, Faith's thoughts turned to Earth.

She had no way of knowing what time, or even what day it was there. Her splash-proof watch had been ruined early on when Mallie, Kay and she had emerged from a 'Gate that was underwater, and she'd lost track of the days back in Anise's crystal dungeon. Cal Meh's twenty-six and a half hour day wasn't helping either; it was screwing with everyone's body clock, even the slayers were affected. But no matter what time it was on Earth she was bound to know someone who was up, so she pleased herself by picturing everyone in the middle of their day.

B was bound to be at her castle, with Xander, D and her acolytes. Not that Faith could tease her about the slayers who followed her anymore, not with the size of her own entourage. If there was an apocalypse (was it apocalypse season yet?) B and the Xan-man could be anywhere in the world, but D would definitely be at the castle, same as Giles would definitely be in London. There was an unwritten rule amongst the survivors of Sunnydale that the Head Watcher wasn't allowed to directly participate in apocalypses anymore. The Scooby Gang were too fond of him to let him continue risking his life. Faith had gone along with them, expecting the G-man to break the rule within months, and been surprised when he hadn't. Maybe he was feeling his age, because he'd just settled into his new life of looking after slayers, and sending them to every demonic hotspot on Earth.

Someone else who had settled down easily was Robin. He'd still be teaching in Cleveland when the youngest slayer was all grown up. Idly, Faith wondered if he'd found someone else yet. Had C–?

No! Not going there. Think of someone else...

Red. Red was harder to pin down. She could be in Rio, she could be in England. She could be off on some spiritual journey. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the kickass lesbian witch was once the shy hacker Faith had known way back when. And if someone had told her back then that of all the Scoobies, she'd end up closest to _Willow_, she woulda laughed in their face. Mind you, she hadn't known that Angel would save her back then, or that she'd fail to return the favour.

No regrets, Faith, she firmly told herself. What's done is done and there's no use cryin' about it. At least he went down fighting, and you were there at the end. Would've been there 'til the end if it hadn't been for Teal'c...

Thoughts of Teal'c led inevitably to the rest of SG-1, from SG-1 to Cam, and fuck it! _Had _Cam found someone else? She wouldn't blame him if he had; it wasn't like they'd ever said anything and it had to be months since they'd last seen each other. Since that short, searing kiss...

What would she do if she got back to Earth and he was with someone? Scratching the bitch's eyes out probably wasn't the best idea, no matter how much she liked the sound of it. Probably better to slay it out, and let whoever had taken over as SGC go-between carry on with the gig.

Why was she torturing herself like this? Better to worry about it when it happened. It wasn't like there was any way for her to know until she got back to Earth, and who knew when that would be. Anything could happen between now and then. _She _could find someone else. It wasn't like she hadn't had offers; that young Knight, Tristan had made it clear last night that he was hers if she wanted him. The problem was, Faith sighed, she was only interested in one man and he was literally light-years away. It was... irritating. Like having an itch she couldn't scratch. And, God did she have it bad if she was actually jonesing for a guy!

The worst part was there wasn't anything she could do about it. The Powers That Ruled Her Life had made it clear that they'd veto any attempt she made to get home before they were done with her, not that that was gonna stop her from trying. But in the end, her best shot at getting home was to do what They wanted. Faith just wished she knew what that was. There had to be more to it than rescuing slayers. What was their endgame?

Suddenly the trees began to clear in the distance, and the buildings appeared. Faith picked up her pace and quickly reached the edge of the forest and the start of a small mining town that huddled up to the steep rock face. She recognised the set from the years she'd spent watching movies. Plus, the pickaxe leaning against a cart loaded with rocks was a dead giveaway. So were the tunnels carved into the cliff.

Faith grinned, heading for the rickety scaffolding that clambered halfway up the precipice. She was more than far enough away from the village now, and she felt in need of some constructive destruction. It was the reason she was out here after all.

It didn't take long before she was inside the tunnel system, although she stopped at the first junction in. She wanted a clear route of escape in case she was wrong and it blew up in her face. Which, considering what she was dealing with, could actually happen.

She was careful as she unwrapped the bundle she'd carried on her back, and her hands were almost shaking as she drew the cloth back to reveal the three Prior staffs they'd found discarded around the village's main square. Reluctant to even touch one, she used a scrap of the cloth she'd wrapped the staffs in to pick one up and prop it against the wall. Finally, Faith drew her sword, taking comfort from the cool steel and delicately-balanced weight. Weight that only a slayer could wield with one hand.

In a spaceship above another world, in another slayer's hands, this sword had sliced through a Prior's staff like butter. The hallway of the spaceship had failed to turn into the raging inferno that had devoured Duran. Was it a fluke? Was it the ship? Or was it the sword? Faith was determined to find out, and there was only one way to do that.

Bracing herself for the worst, Faith swung at the staff. Her sword cut through it easily and the staff fell to the ground in two roughly equal pieces. Faith waited. She waited a bit more, just to be sure. It was kinda disappointing really.

She lined up the next staff and let herself think of Cam's new lover. Take that, bitch!

l

Azure? Babette? Bambina? A definite no to all the above. Barbara? Ew, no! Barbie...? Maybe. Bebe? Belinda? Bella? Hmmm... Bel-la. She quite liked it, and scribbled it down at the bottom of the growing list she was compiling. Absently she took a bite of her hamburger, and flipped the page. Bellatrix! Ooh!

Someone collapsed in the chair opposite her, and she looked up in surprise. She'd chosen this table especially because of its isolation and the fact that it was right next to the kitchen and therefore Sal. A quick glance around the diner told her that there were still spare tables for the taking, although it was beginning to fill up with the lunchtime rush. So why had this dark-haired woman chosen to sit with her? And why was she staring at her as though she was a puzzle she longed to solve?

"Hiya," the woman said brightly, holding her right hand out vertically. "I'm Teri."

"Um..." she said dubiously, staring at Teri's outstretched hand. "Hi." Because the other woman seemed to expect some sort of returning gesture, she copied her. Teri reached forward and clasped her hand, shaking it up and down briefly before releasing it.

"Sal's wife...?" Teri prompted when her expression remained blank.

"Oh!" she exclaimed as understanding burst upon her. "Hello! Um... _Sal_!"

Teri winced at the volume of her yell and Sal stuck his head out of the kitchen. A brief frown crossed his face when he saw his wife sitting with the woman he had taken under his wing but he quickly wiped it away and shambled over to drop a kiss on Teri's upturned lips.

"Hey, baby," said Teri, smiling up at him.

"Hi, honey," replied Sal. "Marcus get off to kindergarten okay?"

"Sweet as a lamb," Teri told him, still smiling.

"Great," Sal said, nodding. He scratched his head. "So, uh... what're you doin' here?"

"What?" Teresa stared up at her husband, a wounded expression on her face. "A woman can't visit her husband at work now?"

"Now, I didn't say that," Sal protested.

"But you were thinking it," accused Teri, the twinkle in her eye a message for Sal alone.

She watched in horror as the married couple began bickering in front of her, wondering if their argument could possibly be her fault. Teri and Sal were oblivious to her distress, too intent on showing their affection for one another by taking pot shots at each other. Finally, just as she was convinced that they were about to start yelling, Teri smiled and reached up to cradle Sal's face in her hands.

"C'mere," she purred, pulling him down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "Love you."

"Love you too, babe," Sal mumbled, dropping another kiss on the top of her head. "You want the usual?"

"Thanks, honey," Teri smiled gratefully, blowing Sal a kiss as he headed back to his kitchen.

As soon as her husband was safely out of sight, Teri turned all of her attention to his newest employee, regarding her with narrowed eyes as she made up her mind about the woman squirming in front of her. This wasn't the first time Sal had taken a stray under his wing, although it was definitely the first time any of them had claimed amnesia. Teri intended to make sure he didn't get burned again.

"So," Teri finally said. "I hear you lost your memory."

"Y-yes," she replied, not sure she liked Teri. She made it sound as though she'd carelessly left her memory behind on a bench somewhere. Behind her, Marcy called another order in and she half-turned in her seat, expecting Sal to holler that her break was up.

"Man," Teri marvelled, sitting back in her chair and regarding her with appraising eyes. "How much must that suck?"

Unbelievably, she could only read concern on Teri's face. The same sort of concern that had been written all over Sal's face the first time she'd met him. "A lot," she admitted, her voice cracking a little.

Teri spontaneously reached out and squeezed her hand, catching her eye with a sympathetic grimace. She shifted uncomfortably for a moment as something curled tight in the pit of her belly eased slightly and then returned a tentative smile to Teri. Teri beamed back at her.

She _liked _this woman, Teri decided, as her salad was delivered to the table and a cup of coffee poured for her. Now the only dilemma was, what to call her?

"So," she said casually as she speared several leaves of lettuce and a small tomato, "You thought of a name yet?"

"I quite like Barbie," she confided, eagerly picking up the book of names.

"Mmm-mmm," Teri vetoed around a mouthful of salad, emphatically waving her fork in the air.

"I **don't** like Barbie," she decided, flipping to the page she'd been reading before Teri had joined her. "Bellatrix?"

Teri swallowed. "Gimme that," she said wearily, holding her hand out. She began to flip through the book when she handed it to her, treating her to a shrewd stare. "Do you know," Teri said conversationally, "You jump every time someone calls Sal's name."

"I don't," she automatically denied.

"You do," Teri told her matter-of-factly, rapidly scanning the book's pages. "Ah, here," she pushed the book back over to her, pointing at an entry. "Valerie," she proclaimed. "We can call you Val for short."

"Valerie," she tested it. "Val..."

Somehow it felt right. "I like it!" Val decided with a smile.

"Yay!" Teri celebrated quietly, lifting her cup up into the air. Val copied her and Teri clinked her cup against hers. "To Val," she proposed.

"To Val," that woman echoed, leaning back in her chair and sipping her coffee. It was amazing how something as simple as a name could change your entire outlook on life, Val mused. Suddenly the day seemed brighter, despite the ominous clouds outside the diner.

Maybe it was because they'd just turned on the lights?

l

After checking in with Liss, Faith ran Val's dad down in a hayfield, pitchfork in hand as he tossed bundles up to a wagon already full to the brim. The three other men working with him spotted her as she approached them and gradually all four stopped working, waiting to see what she wanted.

"Gotta spare pitchfork?" she asked, and grinned as they fell over themselves to find one.

She worked alongside them until the field was empty and the wagon was stacked high, and when it rumbled out of the field she was perched on top of the hay, or whatever it was, with her legs dangling over the edge and Papa G sitting next to her while the two other guys crammed onto the driver's bench with the driver. Faith stretched, enjoying the feel of the sun against her skin and the swaying, scratchy ride. What she wouldn't give for a pair of jeans...

"'Bout my sword," she started, leaning back on her elbows and grabbing a long stem to stick between her teeth.

"Did it work alright?" Papa G asked anxiously, with a glance down at the scabbard hanging from Faith's belt.

"Better'n alright," Faith told him with a grin. "_Way _better. I was wondering," she switched her straw from one side of her mouth to the other, "If you could make some more?"

The large blacksmith frowned, mentally calculating, "How many?"

"Enough for the rest of the girls," said Faith, knowing that another six swords was a lot to ask.

"Maybe if I had the materials..." Gelath mused.

"Let Kay know what you need," Faith said, squinting at the sun and sitting up. "I'll tell her it's important. Listen, speakin' of Kay, I really gotta get to the 'Gate before the others get back."

"Might take a while," Gelath called after her as Faith slid off the wagon to stand on the dirt track.

"No problem!" Faith cried back as the mobile haystack continued to creak its way along the road. "You coming to dinner?"

"Aye!" Gelath bellowed as the cart rounded a corner and carried on its way. The top of the pile of hay, and the large man relaxing on it, were just visible over the hedge bordering the road and Faith took a moment to grin at the sight before she set off in a sprint towards the Stargate.

She knew she was cutting it fine as soon as she was past the village and in sight of the 'Gate. Brock and a buncha other men had already set up a makeshift paddock surrounding the Stargate, and were standing in twos and threes as they waited for the trading party to arrive. Brock's blonde head stuck out in the middle of about five others, and Faith had to push her way through them to reach him.

"Hey," she said as soon as she'd reached him. "Am I late?"

"No," Brock reassured her. "We finished early. They should be here soon."

"Cool," Faith shrugged nonchalantly, turning to make sure the Stargate was in her line of sight. She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand gently stroke her hair, and spun round to direct a deadly glare at Brock.

"You," he gulped, "Had wheat in your hair." He brandished the offending stalk, "Sorry."

"Thanks," Faith said after a moment. She plucked the wheat from between his fingers and, setting the cut end of the stem at a jaunty angle between her teeth, casually strolled over to the fence ringing the 'Gate.

It took him a couple of minutes but eventually Brock joined her there. Faith kept her eyes on the 'Gate, her forearms resting on the top rail of the fence as she tried to figure out how to apologise.

"Do I make you uncomfortable?" Brock asked after a moment, and Faith turned to look at him

"God, no!" she told him. "Sorry 'bout that. I guess I'm kinda on edge, what with the girls off-world and everything."

"Good," said Brock, capturing her eyes with his, and holding contact meaningfully. "I am glad I do not make you uncomfortable."

"Uhh, yeah... Listen, Brock," Faith started, trying to work out how to explain to the tall blonde Viking in front of her that she wasn't interested.

Typically the Stargate chose that moment to flare into life, leaving Faith unsure if she was relieved or pissed off by the interruption.

"Positions!" Brock shouted to his men as the wormhole settled back down to ripple in the confines of the open 'Gate.

Men rushed to key points of the fence, ready to either help with the animals that the trading party were expected to bring with them, or defend their new home, whichever they were called on to do. Nerves jangled as the moment stretched and no-one appeared.

A fluffy white cloud streamed out of the rippling wormhole and down the stone steps of the Stargate platform. It wasn't until it began to spread out into the paddock that Faith realised that she was looking at a flock of sheep. She grinned, deactivating her zat, and leapt over the fence to stride towards the Stargate, pushing her way against the jostling tide of sheep to wait at one side of the steps. The last ewe skipped through the 'Gate and down the stairs past Faith and one by one, Knights of Camelot began to step out of the Stargate.

Faith took a moment to greet each of them by painstakingly remembered name as they passed her. Even though their satisfied smiles reassured her, she was on edge until Flash appeared, his head low as he pulled a laden cart through the Stargate.

Mallie waved enthusiastically from the driver's bench as soon as she spotted Faith. "We got sheep!" she yelled. Kay, who was sitting next to her, winced.

"We noticed!" Faith called back as the rest of the cart slid through the 'Gate and Flash began the descent from the platform.

Jem, who was sitting with his feet dangling over the end of the cart, twisted to see where they were as soon as he was through the Stargate. Catching sight of Faith, he grinned and waved wildly.

"Look what we got!" he called as a second, distinctly canine, head popped up next to his.

"What is that?" demanded Faith as the wagon drew level with her. She walked beside it as Mallie continued to guide the jolting vehicle down the stone stairs.

"It's a dog," Kay replied calmly as Mallie concentrated on wrestling against the forces of gravity.

"I see that," Faith told her. "What's it doing here? We've got enough mouths to feed as it is."

"It's a working dog," Mallie grunted as the rear wheels of the wagon slipped over the last step and hit the ground. "Beside, she's pregnant."

"Great," said Faith, meaning anything but. A whole litter of dogs to feed.

"About half of the sheep are too," Kay told her, jumping down from her perch next to Mallie as the farm-bred slayer reined Flash to a halt. "We got lucky. It was spring on Halosia."

"Any trouble?" Faith asked anxiously.

"None," Kay reassured her. "I don't think the Ori have reached that sector of the galaxy yet. The Halosians have only heard reports of them so far."

"That's good news at least," Faith said grimly. "Wonder how long it'll last."

"Another week at least, I hope," Mallie said from above them. "Halosia is holding a cattle market in five days and their cows are good milkers."

"It always comes back to food with you, doesn't it?" Kay asked Mallie with a laughing smile.

"A slayer needs her food!" Mallie agreed with an answering grin. "Speaking of which, we had better get this lot unpacked," she said, jerking her head back at the barrels and crates stacked high in the cart.

Faith had to take a step back, literally and figuratively, and let both the wagon and the dog go. Their first off-world trading run had been a success and one small dog wasn't such a disaster in the grand scheme of things. Besides, even Faith had to admit that the dog made it a lot easier to round up the sheep and get them moving towards the farms. The bitch might be worth her weight in meat after all.

In the meantime though, she really needed to check in with Slayer Central; she'd been gone for most of the day. God only knew what had happened while she was gone.

l

Reaching for the remote, Val hopped into her sleeping bag and quickly zipped up the side with the same hand. She wobbled a little. Sitting down on the cot that dominated the available floor space in the small storeroom, she turned the TV on. Val flicked through channels as she snuggled down, getting comfortable. A flash of rippling water made her hesitate and the last few seconds of the opening credits for a program called Wormhole X-Treme played out on the screen.

Val put down the remote.

l

Sam didn't bother to knock as she entered Jonas' room, not wanting to disturb him if he was asleep. She quickly realised that while Jonas was awake, he wasn't alone. Stumbling to a stop, she blinked rapidly as she took in the chessboard, camera and screen fixed above Jonas' bed. She should have thought of chess, Sam realised suddenly and fresh spears of guilt caused her to grimace. She'd already felt bad enough about neglecting Jonas of the past few days.

"Sorry," she said. "I can come back later."

"It's alright," Jool told her, rising from her chair in front of the chessboard. "Jonas was beating me anyway."

"Don't underrate yourself," Sam said grudgingly as she looked at the pieces left on the board.

"Want to finish the game?" offered Jool.

"Thanks," Sam accepted the offer. "But don't let me chase you away."

"I've got to go anyway," said Jool, glancing at her watch.

"Hot date?" asked Jonas.

"Something like that," Jool evaded, unable to tell him that SG-13 were patrolling Montrose's graveyard tonight. "And I'm late."

"Have fun," Jonas called after her as she slipped from the room.

Sam sat down in Jool's recently vacated seat, "How're you feeling?"

"Oh, can't feel my feet, searing pains in my chest whenever I breathe which, apparently, is a good sign..." Jonas told Sam, his tone light. "Same old, same old. How're you?"

"Busy, busy," said Sam, moving a piece on the chessboard. "You know what it's like."

"Yeah..." sighed Jonas, studying the board on the screen rigged above his head.

"Vala, you remember Vala, right?"

"Mmm-hmm," Jonas confirmed, concentrating on his next move.

"Anyway, Vala was kidnapped by the Trust a few days ago and we've been trying to track her–"

"I know," interrupted Jonas. "Knight to F-6. Doctor Wilson filled me in."

"Oh," was all that Sam could say to that. She moved Jonas' piece and stared at the board, trying to suppress the growing irritation she felt.

"She seems nice," Jonas said nonchalantly, his eyes shrewd as he looked at Sam.

"Mmmm," Sam made a non-committal noise.

"But you don't like her," Jonas noted.

"I didn't say that," defended Sam.

"You didn't have to," Jonas told her. "It's written all over you."

"Is it really that obvious?" Sam asked, giving up all pretence of playing chess and leaning back in her chair with a wry grimace.

"Only because I know you," Jonas reassured her.

"Great," Sam commented unenthusiastically. That meant she was probably broadcasting her dislike to at least half the base.

"We worked together for over a year," Jonas reminded her. "We trusted each other with our lives almost every day. That creates a bond."

"I know," agreed Sam.

"So why don't you like her?" Jonas asked, returning to the topic at hand.

"It's difficult to say," Sam hedged and Jonas' eyes narrowed assessingly. "I guess... sometimes you just don't like someone, you know?"

"No," disagreed Jonas.

"No?"

"No."

"You never met someone you didn't like?" Sam asked with disbelief.

"Oh, I've met plenty," Jonas told her. "But I've always been able to work out why. Haven't you?"

"No," Sam said baldly.

"Oh."

There was silence for a moment as they both fell into their own thoughts, and then Jonas roused himself enough to ask about the information they were receiving from the Ori ship. Sam responded with enthusiasm, telling him about the progress they had made, and Jonas replied with interest, his keen intellect complimenting hers. Before they knew it the years had fallen away and they were talking as easily as they once had.

l

She was trapped. Afraid and angry, she struggled against an unseen presence that sat on her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs and forcing her to choke. Her stomach writhed as dread coiled its way through her body.

In front of her a man wearing rags convulsed on his knees, a bright beam of light connecting his head to her outstretched hand. Her eyes focussed on a chip in one of her gold encrusted fingernails and her forehead frowned but she wasn't in control. She literally couldn't stop her body from harming the man that knelt before her, and she was causing him pain; she could feel it. Worse, a sick sense of pleasure echoed back from the corners of her mind. She couldn't stop herself, couldn't force her own arm down. She could feel herself _smiling _while inside she silently screamed.

Sheer terror clawed Val awake. She heaved a great breath into her lungs; every muscle locked tight, the sleeping bag a confining bundle wrapped around her body. She held the breath for as long as she physically could, until her chest burned for air and her head swam.

She did it to prove that she could.

**l DAY 3 l**

Adria opened her eyes slowly. Audiences with her Fathers always left her yearning for more. They were unforgiving of the failings of her human half and unable to comprehend her growing obsession with her mother. This time they had impressed the importance of turning her attention away from the Clava upon her. She had more pressing objectives to fulfil. With the influx of soldiers and Priors due to arrive today she could afford to delegate. Besides, she had Deama to keep an eye on things for her.

The Orici regarded her Clava with a critical look. Unfortunately Deama was incapable of operating independently at the moment. Silently, Adria guided Deama across the floor to sit in front of her.

Staring deep into Deama's blue eyes, Adria began the slow and painstaking task of repairing some of the damage she had done to Deama's mind.

But not too much.

l

Sal realised that they had a problem when Val refused to take the trash out to the bins in the alley. Thinking back, he couldn't remember her setting foot outside the place. She'd made his diner her refuge. He pressed the issue and then backed off when she paled and bit her lip. He'd used it to guilt her into waiting on tables instead. Nothing major, just delivering the breakfast orders the waitresses called in, but he wanted to get her talking to people. She was too quiet.

After some coaching and a lot of encouragement, Val left the kitchen and entered the breakfast rush, laden with plates. She delivered them to the right table, quickly sorting out who'd ordered what, and made a hasty retreat back to the kitchen, her legs shaking.

"Good job," praised Sal, handing her two more plates. "Table seven, and kiddo? Don't forget to smile," he told her.

Val took a deep breath and pinned a smile on her face. "Smile," she said. "Gotcha."

l

Now that coffee was officially rationed it was only available in an absolute emergency. Unfortunately, as far as Faith was concerned, mornings didn't count as emergencies despite the fact that the slightly longer than normal day still had everyone's sleeping pattern out of whack. Logically Faith knew that the slayers had it easier than anyone else; needing less sleep to function. Logic didn't provide coffee in the morning though. Logic provided a minty cup of stewed herbs designed to send the recipient back to sleep, or so it seemed to Faith as she yawned into her cup. She was barely awake enough to follow the conversations flowing over the breakfast table, but a few words rose above the rest, catching her attention.

"One of the rabbits had a litter in the night. The little kits are so sweet!" Mallie was excitedly telling Jem.

"What?" demanded Faith, suddenly wide awake and sitting bolt upright in her chair. The chatter in the background died away as everyone became aware that Faith wasn't pleased about something.

"One of the rabbits–" Mallie hesitantly began.

"Rabbits!" Faith pounced on the word that had stirred her interest. "You brought rabbits back yesterday?"

"Um, yes," Mallie reluctantly admitted. Kay stepped away from the fire and the porridge she had been stirring to stand behind Mallie, silently offering her support.

"Oh, God," groaned Faith, dropping her head into her hands.

"What is wrong about rabbits?" Elifa asked curiously.

Faith reply was muffled but still clearly audible, "Australia."

l

Because it was raining in Montrose, Oz was helping Sergeant Siler construct the last computer bank they needed in order to handle the data they were receiving from the Ori mothership. Colonel Carter was at the far end of room, working her way through the latest information. Work on the mothership data had become a priority when Carter had discovered that the ship was currently in orbit around a world called Cimmeria. Apparently the Cimmerians were old friends of the SGC, and they wanted to monitor the situation on the ground.

But they were receiving more information than they could handle, and the sudden increase in transmissions that had begun a few hours ago wasn't making things any easier. They just couldn't find the information they needed to know. The stations Siler and Oz were building were an attempt to filter the data into designated stations grouped around the room. They'd deliberately copied the lay-out of a mothership bridge so that simulations would be easier to translate to a real bridge, although the stations were clearly of Earth origin and design.

At the moment the data was being held on a bank of servers at Colonel Carter's end of the room. She had already written a program that would split the data into the appropriate sections, so that it would be easier to monitor the arriving information. All that was left to do was to finish building the stations and connect the new hardware to the servers. They would then serve as both a back-up for the incoming data and as an overriding control system, much like the Prior's chair on an actual Ori mothership. All of the information would be accessible from Colonel Carter's station, and it could be used to program simulations to help the SGC learn more about the motherships and their capabilities.

First though, they needed to finish building the additional computers. Oz was enjoying the work. Although he was ultimately responsible for the data they were receiving from the Ori mothership, thanks to the virus he had coded into its systems, he hadn't had much of an opportunity to work on the project in the few days since its inception. Vala's abduction had meant that he spent more time in Montrose than at the SGC, using his highly developed sense of smell to try and track her down. So far he hadn't had much luck and, although he hadn't said anything yet, he was starting to agree with Jool. Either Vala had moved on, or she wasn't setting foot outside. Either way, he felt infinitely more useful here, helping Colonel Carter and Sergeant Siler. Not that he'd ever tell Doctor Jackson that. It was only the archaeologist's firm conviction that Vala was, for whatever reason, unable to contact them herself, that kept Oz and the others returning to Montrose. Doctor Jackson refused to give up on Qetesh's former host, and so neither would they. Other members of the SGC were continuing the search further afield, but for the most part it was business as usual for the heavily classified base. The Ori wouldn't halt their invasion of the galaxy just because the Orici's mother had been kidnapped, so Earth couldn't afford to stop working against them either.

The mothership data was just one of many projects the members of the SGC program were working on but, like so many others, it could provide the key to defeating the Ori. Once it was up and running, it would enable them to better understand the Ori motherships, and hopefully pinpoint any weaknesses in their design.

Both Sergeant Siler and Colonel Carter looked up as the door opened, but Oz had no need to. The scent that preceded the newcomer was a familiar one; although not one he had expected to smell for a while. Andrew was back.

Without looking up from the motherboard he was working on, Oz added his monosyllabic greeting to Colonel Carter and Sergeant Siler's more verbose ones.

Andrew was as enthusiastic as usual, excited to be back at the SGC and eager to get involved with the mothership project. He joined Colonel Carter at her workstation and badgered her into giving him a walk-through of the system they were currently using and a summation of what they had discovered so far. Sergeant Siler and Oz exchanged amused looks at the barely concealed irritation in Colonel Carter's voice as she explained the progress they had made so far.

"Andrew, give me a hand?" Oz requested, taking pity on the Colonel.

"Sure," Andrew agreed instantly. In his defence, he didn't mean to irritate anyone, but Colonel Carter didn't suffer fools gladly and Andrew had a habit of speaking before he thought. "What can I do?"

Sergeant Siler quickly walked Andrew through the process they were using and left Oz to keep an eye on him, moving to the other side of the room to start connecting the units they had already built. Oz began piecing the final server together, leaving the last motherboard to Andrew's surprisingly competent care. Although, thought Oz, didn't he remember Willow saying something about Andrew and a BuffyBot? Huh. Who'd have thought it?

"Sir Cyril?" Oz asked succinctly when Andrew handed him the completed motherboard, curious to know if the missing watcher had been found.

"Turns out he was kidnapped by a bunch of vamps who wanted him to tell them how to open the hellmouth," Andrew informed him, oblivious to the incredulous look Sergeant Siler sent their way. "He was being held in a magically shielded room, which is why I couldn't scry for him. Robin got a tip-off from one of the neutral races and we got him back late last night."

"Could that explain why you haven't been able to track Vala?" asked Colonel Carter, proving that she at least was following the conversation. Siler spared some incredulity for her too.

"It could," Andrew told her, giving the matter serious consideration. "If they've got her in a shielded room then the extra supplies I picked up in Cleveland aren't going to do any good."

"But it's worth a shot, right?" pressed the Colonel.

"Sure," Andrew agreed easily.

"Jool know?" Oz asked, returning to the subject of the missing watcher. Andrew's report clashed with what he had smelt in Sir Cyril's apartment, but he hadn't been there when the watcher was found. He supposed it was possible that the vampires had used mercenaries to kidnap the watcher, it just seemed unlikely.

"About Sir Cyril?" Andrew checked. "She's on the phone to him right now," he elaborated when Oz nodded. "I thought she was going to cry when I told her!"

"They're close," Oz observed.

"No kidding!" said Andrew as the last motherboard slotted into place and Oz reached inside to connect it to the others.

"Good to go," Oz told Siler, sliding the back plate into place and reaching for the screws.

Siler had the computer connected to the main server before Oz had all of the screws in, and Andrew hurried around the room, turning the newly-built machines on while Colonel Carter pulled up the programs she had written, waiting to hear that all was ready before she executed them. Monitors flickered into life as data flowed through cables and Andrew audibly squeaked.

"Oh, wow!" he said excitedly. "This is so cool! You based it on the mothership bridge design, right? Is it just me or is it missing... something?"

Closing her eyes and dropping her head into her hands, Colonel Carter sighed.

l

After a full day's work on the farm, Jem was exhausted. Born and dragged up from the gutters of a city the young man was unused to the long hours and hard labour associated with country living. He was hot, sweaty, and covered in filth from the animal pens. His muscles protested every movement he made, so much so that he was actually looking forward to the bath that Kay was bound to insist he take as soon as she clapped eyes on him.

Despite having worked much harder than him, Mallie's appearance was a direct contrast to Jem's. Her hair tied back from her face, she was actually glowing as she met him in the farmyard. The only thing that marred her features was a smudge of dirt on one of her cheekbones. She looked as though she could quite happily work for several more hours. Jem was dreading the walk back to town.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked him, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet.

Jem nodded wearily in reply, and turned to face the long trudge home. Mallie moved to his side and then stopped, frowning. Jem made it a couple of steps forward before he realised that she wasn't with him, and turned to see what the problem was.

Mallie was staring in the opposite direction, her forehead rumpled with concern. Jem followed her gaze and realised that he could hear thudding hoof beats striking the ground. Whoever was riding towards them was in a hurry.

One of the Cimmerian men rounded the corner of the barn, atop a dappled grey horse. As he drew nearer Jem realised that the horse was flecked with a foamy lather of sweat and clearly exhausted. The rider showed no signs of stopping, clearly aiming for the road that led to town. Uttering a small sound of disgust, Mallie stepped directly into the path of the horse as it reached them.

Jem lunged for her as the horse reared, almost unseating its startled rider. He tried to pull her back, out of danger, but she resisted, reaching up for the reins that the rider had let go. He watched incredulously as she started to soothe the beast.

"Are you mad?" the rider yelled at Mallie as his mount calmed. "I could have–" he suddenly realised who he was talking to and paled dramatically. "Forgive me, Valkyrie," he said in a drastically different tone, his head respectfully bowed. "I did not realise–"

"That you were in danger of riding this horse to its death?" Mallie cut him off acerbically, stroking the horse's nose. Still holding the reins, she began to walk. The horse shambled obediently behind her. "We need every animal we have if we are to survive the winter. What could be so important that you would risk her life?"

"We need no longer fear starvation," the man told her eagerly. "Several miles south of here the fields stretch for as far as the eye can see, all planted with a wondrous food. I was hastening to share the good news."

"Show me," commanded Mallie, an inkling of dread in her voice. Jem frowned, wondering what the catch was.

The man pulled something from the satchel he wore and threw it to her. Mallie caught it easily with one hand and then looked at what she held. She stopped pacing.

"What is it?" asked Jem, moving so that he could see her face. She looked pale and slightly green, her face devoid of expression and her eyes far away. "Mallie?"

"Kassa," she whispered.

"What?" Jem took a closer look at the vegetable that she held in her hand. It was cylindrical in shape, with pale green leaves that had been peeled back to show the curiously knobbly yellow and red vegetable beneath. He'd never seen anything like it before. "What is it?"

Mallie barely heard him, too concerned with what she held in her hand. Faith was already upset about the rabbits they'd brought back yesterday, treating the slayers to a long lecture over breakfast about a planet called Australia and the importance of something called echo-systems. How would she react when she found out that there was kassa on this world?

Distantly she became aware that Jem was shaking her. She batted his hands away without a thought, turning to the rider. "Have you eaten any?" she wanted to know.

"Yes, Valkyrie," the man admitted, his eyes troubled. "Did I do wrong? I feel no ill-effects. If anything I feel invigorated, as though Thor himself had blessed me."

"You would," sighed Mallie, closing her eyes as she thought rapidly. "Okay..." she said, starting to walk the horse again. "We need to see Faith. You had better come with us," she told the rider. "Jem, help Arne saddle two fresh horses and then tell him I need him to take care of this one."

"As you wish," Jem said stiffly, trying hard to stifle the resentment he felt over her cavalier treatment of him. It was obvious that something important was happening, but she was practically ignoring him. He didn't exactly relish the idea of riding back to town either.

"Only two, Valkyrie?" the rider questioned gently as Jem limped off on his errand.

"I do not need a horse to keep up," Mallie informed him airily, moving forward again to cool off his horse. "My name is Malina. You are one of Brock's scouts, are you not?"

"I am," the rider said proudly. "Hakon, at your service."

"I am pleased to meet you, Hakon," Mallie told him honestly. She was hoping that they could prevent word of the kassa from spreading. "I know that Faith will want to hear what you have to say."

Hakon's jaw dropped open at the thought of an audience with the most senior of Valkyries. Although he had known that his news would be welcome, this was more than he had thought to dream of.

"Two horses," Jem announced as he and Arne appeared, each leading a horse. "As ordered."

"Thanks, Jem," Mallie beamed at him as she stopped walking for long enough to allow Hakon to dismount.

Jem's sullen look evaporated in the light of her smile, but returned slightly when he turned his attention to his horse. Handing the gray over to Arne, Mallie walked over to hold the reins of his horse so that Jem could scramble atop. Flushed with triumph at achieving the feat, Jem looked down at her from what seemed like a great height.

"You ready?" she asked.

"When you are," he told her.

Glancing over at Hakon, Mallie realised that the scout had pulled another kassa from his satchel and was absentmindedly eating it, his expression one of bliss. Disgusted, she couldn't help grimacing. One kassa addict was one too many in her opinion. Without a word, she took Hakon's reins in her other hand and set off for town at a flat sprint.

l

The news that Vala's DNA hadn't been among those found at the Trust's destroyed safehouse spread swiftly through the SGC, bringing with it a collective sigh of relief. It was surprising how quickly the former host had managed to make her presence felt in the underground base, and even more surprising how much her antics were missed now she was gone. She certainly hadn't caused this much disturbance the first time she had disappeared, transported to the Ori home galaxy. Her time there had matured her to some degree, and the fact that she had continued to work against the Ori, despite the fact that her daughter was now leading their forces, had definitely raised her in the SGC's esteem. Daniel in particular saw the DNA results as further proof that she was still alive. His mood was particularly buoyant as he and the male members of SG-13 prepared for their evening patrol of Montrose. He even cracked a smile at Andrew and Oz's double act.

Jon was reminded of all the times Daniel had died, only to return in one form or another, and usually no worse for the experience. It was entirely possible that Vala had escaped from the warehouse before it exploded, although the reason for her absence was harder to figure out. Daniel's blind faith in her wasn't that different from the faith SG-1 had learned to have in Daniel.

Waiting for them in the hallway outside, Jool straightened as the four of them left the changing room. She noted Jon's close proximity to Daniel with little surprise. Over the past few days the Captain's attitude towards his former teammate had undergone a slight thawing. He might not have forgotten what he saw as Daniel's betrayal, but he was almost certainly closer to forgiving him for it.

Not that he'd ever admit it.

l

It didn't take long for Vealdr to notice that the leaders of the small community gathered every night in the house that the Valkyries had claimed for their own. Nor did it escape him that he had yet to receive an invitation. Oh, he collected his daily food rations from their kitchen (or rather, one of his acolytes did) but everyone did that. Only those that ran the village were permitted to join the Valkyries at their own table, and Vealdr was not amongst them.

The insult rankled. It was made worse by the fact that Gairwyn's son, Gunnar, and his wife were nightly visitors. He had already endured one affront from that family, when Thor's emissaries had overlooked him in the rebuilding after the Ettins had invaded, choosing Gairwyn as their envoy instead. He was not inclined to suffer another.

He was Thor's Priest! He should be counselling the Valkyries, not sitting in solitary splendour. Instead of confiding in him, they avoided him. It wasn't supposed to be like this! People listened to him, so why wouldn't they?

One thing was clear. Unless he took actions to prevent it he would be excluded from any decisions made by this self-elected council. And that was unacceptable to Vealdr.

Which was how he found himself shivering in the cool night air, torn by sudden trepidation outside the front door of the house the Valkyries had taken for their own. Reaching deep inside himself, he summoned enough courage to open the door and step inside.

Inside, all was dark and quiet. The hall was lit only by one guttering candle, but Vealdr's sharp ears detected the murmuring of voices beyond a door with light streaming underneath it. He crept across the room, closer to the door, until he could make out individual voice.

"We're all agreed then?" asked Faith, the leader of the Valkyries. "Tomorrow we get Hakon to take us–" a floorboard creaked under Vealdr's foot and Faith abruptly broke off mid-sentence.

Suppressing an automatic curse, Vealdr flung the door open. He'd already announced his presence; he might as well make it felt.

"Oh," he feigned surprise. "My apologies for intruding," as he spoke, his eyes were busily roaming the room, taking in every little detail and storing it up for later analysis. "I wished only invite you to a feast in your honour tomorrow night. Whatever is that?" he had spied the strange vegetables in the middle of the table and darted forward to pick one up before anyone could stop him.

"Kassa," Faith told him in a flat tone, exchanging significant glances with Kay and Ursula.

"Is it edible?" Vealdr wanted to know.

"Unfortunately," said Faith. She elaborated in the face of his confusion. "Apparently it's highly addictive too."

"But you have no proof of this?" questioned Vealdr.

"On the contrary," Kay interrupted their conversation with a gentle reproof aimed at Vealdr, "Kassa is known on many worlds. Those that have not succumbed to its allure have banned it, as we should do."

"But it is food," Vealdr's objection was simple. "If Thor did not intend us to eat it, he would not have allowed it to grow here."

"What part of addictive don't you get?" Faith asked him. "This shit is bad for you."

"Is there enough to feed us through the winter?" countered Vealdr, taking a seat at the table and forcing Gunnar and his wife to move down for him.

"Apparently," Mallie reluctantly admitted. She winced as Faith threw a glare her way and shrugged apologetically.

"Then what is wrong with us eating it if there is more than sufficient for our needs?" asked Vealdr.

"The people who sell this, who grow this, will be back for it," Kay told him.

Vealdr wasn't fazed, "So we will let them take as much as they want."

"They will want all of it," Brock told him.

"And they will expect us to have harvested it for them," added Mallie.

"So why are we not harvesting it?" Vealdr wanted to know, alarmed by the thought that the owners of the kassa might punish them for not doing so.

"Because if people harvest it they'll probably eat it at the same time," Kay explained matter-of-factly.

"We've already got one person addicted to it, we don't need more," Faith informed him.

"Who has eaten it?" Vealdr asked out of curiosity.

"Hakon," Brock told him and Vealdr nodded automatically. He remembered the name, but not the face.

"He was not happy when we took his supply from him," observed Nya.

Faith snorted, "You said it!" She squirmed when she realised that her outbreak had caused everyone to look at her.

"So what do you plan to do about it?" challenged Vealdr.

"We're gonna burn it," Faith said simply.

"What?" exclaimed Vealdr, horrified. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?" asked Faith.

"Because... because it must be worth something!" Vealdr seized an excuse. "What if we were to trade it for goods that we can use?"

"We're not drug dealers!" Faith said forcefully. "No!"

"But," began Vealdr.

"I said no!" repeated Faith.

"It is not the worst idea I have heard," Skardhe said from his position near the fire.

The argument that ensued lasted late into the night, and carried over into the next day.


End file.
